Fast Facts on Trumpeter Swans

• a female swan is called a 'pen'
• a male swan is called a 'cob'
• a baby swan is called a 'cygnet', which comes from the latin word cygnus, meaning 'swan'
• Trumpeters are the largest waterfowl in North America
• Trumpeters are not bothered by the cold. They have up to 35 000 feathers and their downy later is 2 inches thick
• Swans have 25 neck vertebrae – that’s almost twice as much as giraffes, who only have 13
• Trumpeters feed on aquatic vegetation and wild grasses in their natural environment – bread is not recommended as a treat
• Trumpeters live an average of 12 years in the wild, and can live for over 30 in captivity
• the scientific name for a Trumpeter swan is Cygnus buccinator
• adult Trumpeters are white, with black beaks, legs, and feet
• trumpeter swan cygnets weigh 8 oz at hatching, and are grey with pinkish beaks, legs, and feet
• juvenile Trumpeters can be distinguished from adults by their grey feathers, which they retain until their second summer of life
• sometimes the head and neck of Trumpeters are stained a reddish-brown colour, as a result of iron deposits in the soil and water that they feed in
• females typically weigh up to 25 lbs, and males up to 30 lbs
• there are few noticeable differences between the sexes, making it difficult to distinguish males from females without an internal examination
• the wingspan of an adult Trumpeter can reach almost 2.5 meters
• trumpeter Swans were extirpated from eastern Canada over 200 years ago, primarily due to over-hunting. They were hunted for their meat, and feathers.