Black swans are nomadic birds that can often travel over hundreds of kilometres, which can be very difficult to track. Australian scientists have now enlisted an army of citizen scientists to help them follow their whereabouts.
Credit: Catherine Payne
SYDNEY: The mystery of why swans habitually travel over huge distances could soon be solved, as millions of 'citizen scientists' team up with Australian zoologists to monitor these large, nomadic birds.
As part of a long-term study launched six years ago, scientists from the University of Melbourne have tagged more than 250 swans at Albert Park Lake, about 3 km south of the Melbourne CBD, the numbered collars designed to allow the identification of individual birds from a distance.
Members of the public can submit a sighting directly to an interactive website to instantly provide data on the bird's movements and history.
"Swans are nomadic animals and travel huge distances but the problem is that we don't understand why and where they move," said Raoul Mulder from the Department of Zoology. "But with the help of millions of pairs of eyes across Australia, we hope to collect valuable data on the whereabouts of the swans."
Large and promiscuous
Swans are among the largest flying birds and are the largest members of the duck family Anatidae. They often mate for life, however 'divorce' does occur, particularly following nesting failure, and the females have proven to be particularly promiscuous, regularly straying from the nest and cheating on their fiercely protective partners.
While species found in the Northern Hemisphere have pure white plumage, Southern Hemisphere species can be either black or white, and the Australian Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is both, sporting white flight feathers on its wings.
Black Swans have the longest necks relative to their body of all swan species and can grow to between 110 and 142 cm in length and 3.7 to 9 kg in weight with a wingspan between 1.6 and 2 m. Due to the influence of climatic conditions on their movements, their migration patterns are erratic and difficult to read.
A two-way dialogue
The researchers hope that by monitoring large populations of wild swans over massive distances, they can learn more about their individual movement patterns and survival rates, and work towards better conservation strategies. But it's a challenge that can only be met with the help of the public.
"There are lots of really interesting biological questions that involve measuring things over huge scales and for a research project to do that with limited funds and limited manpower, it's very, very difficult," said Mulder. "But members of the public… are a great resource for helping scientists to collect data."
In order to collect this data, the research team designed the website, MySwan.org.au, which aims to encourage people to submit sightings of tagged individuals in return for an instant profile of the bird listing its age, movements, partner and a map of its favourite nesting spots.
