Swans are birds of the genusCygnus within the familyAnatidae. The swans' closest relatives includegeese andducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamilyAnserinae, forming thetribeCygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily,Cygninae. They are the largestwaterfowl and are often among the largestflighted birds in their range.
There are six living and manyextinct species of swan; in addition, there is a species known as thecoscoroba swan, which is no longer considered one of thetrue swans. Swans usuallymate for life, although separation sometimes occurs, particularly following nesting failure, and if a mate dies, the remaining swan will take up with another. The number ofeggs in eachclutch ranges from three to eight.[4]
Mute swan (Cygnus olor) family with five cygnets swimming on a lake inRomania
Young swans are known ascygnets, fromOld Frenchcigne orcisne (diminutive suffixet'little'), from theLatin wordcygnus, a variant form ofcycnus'swan', itself from theGreekκύκνοςkýknos, a word of the same meaning.[9][10][11] An adult male is acob, fromMiddle Englishcobbe (leader of a group); an adult female is apen.[12] A group of swans is called a bevy[citation needed] or a wedge.[13]
Amute swan landing on water; due to the size and weight of most swans, large areas of open land or water are required to successfully take off and land.
Swans are the largest extant members of the waterfowl familyAnatidae and are among the largest flying birds.[14] The largest living species, including themute swan,trumpeter swan, andwhooper swan, can reach a length of over 1.5 m (59 in) and weigh over 15 kg (33 lb). Their wingspans can be over 3.1 m (10 ft).[15] Compared to the closely related geese, they are much larger and have proportionally larger feet and necks.[16] Adults also have a patch of unfeathered skin between the eyes and bill. The sexes are alike inplumage, but males are generally bigger and heavier than females.[12] The biggest species of swan ever was the extinctCygnus falconeri, a flightless giant swan known from fossils found on the Mediterranean islands ofMalta andSicily; its disappearance is thought to have resulted from extreme climate fluctuations or the arrival of superior predators and competitors.[17]
TheNorthern Hemisphere species of swan have pure white plumage, while theSouthern Hemisphere species are mixed black and white. The Australianblack swan (Cygnus atratus) is completely black except for the white flight feathers on its wings; the chicks of black swans are light grey. The South Americanblack-necked swan has a white body with a black neck.[18]
The legs of most swans are typically a dark blackish-grey colour, except for the South American black-necked swan, which has pink legs. Bill colour varies: the foursubarctic species have black bills with varying amounts of yellow, and all the others are patterned red and black. Although birds do not have teeth, swans, like other Anatidae, have beaks with serrated edges that look like small jagged "teeth" as part of their beaks, which are used for catching and eating aquatic plants and algae, as well as molluscs, small fish, frogs, and worms.[19] In the mute swan and black-necked swan, both sexes have a fleshy lump at the base of their bills on the uppermandible, known as the knob, which is larger in males and is condition-dependent, changing seasonally.[20][21]
Swans are generally found in temperate environments, rarely occurring in thetropics. Four (or five) species occur in theNorthern Hemisphere, one species is found in Australia, oneextinct species was found in New Zealand and theChatham Islands, and one species is distributed in southern South America. They are absent from tropical Asia, Central America, northern South America and the entirety of Africa. One species, the mute swan, has beenintroduced to North America, Australia and New Zealand.[16]
Several species aremigratory, either wholly or partly so. The mute swan is a partial migrant, being resident over areas of Western Europe but wholly migratory in Eastern Europe and Asia. The tundra swan is wholly migratory, and the whooper swan and trumpeter swan are almost entirely migratory.[16] There is some evidence that the black-necked swan is migratory over part of its range, but detailed studies have not established whether these movements constitute long- or short-range migration.[22]
Swans feed in water and on land. They are almost entirely herbivorous, although they may eat small amounts of aquatic animals. In the water, food is obtained by up-ending or dabbling, and their diet is composed of the roots, tubers, stems, and leaves of aquatic and submerged plants.[16]
Mute swan threatens a photographer inToyako, Japan.
A familiar behaviour of swans is that they mate for life and typically bond even before they reach sexual maturity. Trumpeter swans, for example, can live as long as 24 years and only start breeding at the age of 4–7, forming monogamouspair bonds as early as 20 months.[23] "Divorce", though rare, does occur; one study of mute swans shows a 3% rate for pairs that breed successfully and 9% for pairs that do not.[24] The pair bonds are maintained year-round, even in gregarious and migratory species like thetundra swan, which congregate in large flocks in the wintering grounds.[25]
Swans' nests are on the ground near water and about a metre (3') across. Unlike many other ducks and geese, the male helps with the nest construction and will also take turns incubating the eggs.[26] Alongside thewhistling ducks, swans are the only anatids that will do this. The average egg size (for the mute swan) is 113 × 74 mm (4+1⁄2 x 3 in), weighing 340 g (12 oz), in a clutch size of 4 to 7, with an incubation period of 34–45 days.[27] Swans are highly protective of their nests. They will viciously attack anything that they perceive as a threat to their chicks, including humans; one man was suspected to have drowned in such an attack.[28][29] Swans' intraspecific aggressive behaviour is shown more frequent than interspecific behaviour for food and shelter. The aggression with other species is shown more intundra swans.[30]
Black swans mating inCanberra, AustraliaTrumpeter and whooper swans, with hybrid offspring
Evidence suggests that the genusCygnus evolved in Europe or westernEurasia during theMiocene, spreading all over the Northern Hemisphere until thePliocene. When the southern species branched off is not known. The mute swan is closest to the Southern HemisphereCygnus;[31] its habits of carrying the neck curved (not straight) and the wings fluffed (not flush) as well as its bill colour and knob indicate that its closest living relative is the black swan. Given thebiogeography and appearance of thesubgenusOlor, it seems likely that these are of a more recent origin, as evidenced shows by their modern ranges (which were mostly uninhabitable during thelast ice age) and great similarity between the taxa.[1]
Eurasian species that occurs across Europe into southern Russia, China, and theRussian Maritime Territory, at lower latitudes compared to the whooper swan and Bewick's swan. According to theBritish Ornithologists' Union, recent fossil records show thatCygnus olor is among the oldest bird species still extant; it has been upgraded to "native" status in several European countries since this bird has been found in fossil and bog specimens dating back thousands of years. While being common temperate Eurasian birds, often derived from semi-domesticated flocks, they are now naturalised in theUnited States and elsewhere.
Europe into southern Russia, China, and the Russian Maritime Territory; introduced populations in North America, Japan,Australasia, and southern Africa.
The largest North American swan. Very similar to the whooper swan (and sometimes treated as a subspecies of it). It was hunted almost toextinction but has since recovered.
Breeds on the Arctictundra and winters in more temperate regions ofEurasia and North America. It consists of two forms, generally regarded as subspecies, although some authorities treat them as separate species.[33]
Bewick's swanCygnus (columbianus)bewickii is the Eurasian form that migrates from Arctic Russia to western Europe and eastern Asia (China, Korea, Japan) in winter.
Whistling swanCygnus (columbianus)columbianus is the North American form.
North America, Eurasia
Thecoscoroba swan (Coscoroba coscoroba) from South America, the only species in its genus, is not a true swan. Its phylogenetic position is not fully resolved; it is in some aspects more similar togeese andshelducks.[34]
Thefossil record of the genusCygnus is quite impressive, although allocation to the subgenera is often tentative; as indicated above, at least the early forms probably belong to theC. olor – Southern Hemisphere lineage, whereas the Pleistocene taxa from North America would be placed inOlor. Several prehistoric species have been described, mostly from the Northern Hemisphere. In the Mediterranean, the leg bones of the giant swan (C. falconeri) were found on the islands ofMalta andSicily; it may have been over 2 metres from tail to bill, which was taller (though not heavier) than the contemporary local dwarf elephants (Palaeoloxodon falconeri).
†New Zealand swan (C. sumnerensis)
SubgenusChenopis
†New Zealand swan,Cygnus sumnerensis, an extinct species related to the black swan of Australia
†Cygnus csakvarensisLambrecht 1933 [Cygnus csákvárensisLambrecht 1931a nomen nudum;Cygnanser csakvarensis(Lambrecht 1933) Kretzoi 1957;Olor csakvarensis(Lambrecht 1933) Mlíkovský 1992b] (Late Miocene of Hungary)
†Dwarf swan (Cygnus equitum)Bate 1916 sensu Livezey 1997 [Anser equitum(Bate 1916) Brodkorb 1964;Cygnus (Olor)equitumBate 1916 sensu Northcote 1988a] (Middle – Late Pleistocene of Malta and Sicily, Mediterranean)
†Giant swan (Cygnus falconeri)Parker 1865 sensu Livezey 1997a [Cygnus melitensisFalconer 1868;Palaeocygnus falconeri(Parker 1865) Oberholser 1908] (Middle Pleistocene of Malta and Sicily, Mediterranean)
†Cygnus hibbardiBrodkorb 1958 (?Early Pleistocene of Idaho, U.S.)
†Cygnus lacustris(De Vis 1905) [Archaeocycnus lacustrisDe Vis 1905] (Late Pleistocene of the Lake Eyre region, Australia)
†Cygnus liskunae(Kuročkin 1976) [Anser liskunaeKuročkin 1976] (Middle Pliocene of western Mongolia)
†Cygnus mariaeBickart 1990 (Late Miocene of Florida and Early Pliocene of Arizona, USA)[35][36]
The supposed fossil swans"Cygnus" bilinicus and"Cygnus" herrenthalsi were, respectively, astork and some large bird of unknown affinity (due to the bad state of preservation of the referred material).[41]
Many of the cultural aspects refer to the mute swan of Europe. Perhaps the best-known story about a swan is the fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling". Swans are frequently regarded as symbols of love or fidelity, owing to their enduring and seemingly monogamous pair bonds. Swans feature prominently in twoWagner operas,Lohengrin andParsifal.[42][43]
Swan meat was regarded as a luxury food in England during the reign ofElizabeth I. A recipe for baked swan survives from that time: "To bake a Swan[,] scald it and take out the bones, and parboil it, then season it very well with Pepper, Salt and Ginger, then lard it, and put it in a deep Coffin of Rye Paste with store of Butter, close it and bake it very well, and when it is baked, fill up the Vent-hole with melted Butter, and so keep it; serve it in as you do the Beef-Pie."[44] Swans being raised for food were sometimes kept inswan pits.
The flag of theSwiss municipality ofHorgen; the swan symbolizes the town's location along the south bank of theLake Zurich and its political status as the administrative capital of theHorgen District.
Other references in classical literature include the belief that, upon death, the mute swan would sing beautifully — hence the phrase "swan song".[48]
The mute swan is one ofApollo's sacred birds, associated both with light and with the concept of a "swan song". Apollo is often shown riding a chariot pulled by, or made of, swans during his ascension fromDelos.
In the second century, the Roman poetJuvenal made a sarcastic reference to a good woman being a "rare bird, as rare on earth as a black swan" (black swans being completely unknown in the Northern Hemisphere untilDutch explorers reached Australia in the 1600s), from which comes the Latin phraserara avis ("rare bird").[49]
The Irish legend of theChildren of Lir is about a stepmother who transformed her children into swans for 900 years.[50]
In the legendThe Wooing of Etain, the king of theSidhe (subterranean-dwelling, supernatural beings) transforms himself and the most beautiful woman inIreland, Etain, into swans to escape from the king of Ireland and Ireland's armies. The swan has recently been depicted on anIrish commemorative coin.
InNorse mythology, two swans drink from the sacredWell of Urd in the realm ofAsgard, home of thegods. According to theProse Edda, the water of this well is so pure and holy that all things that touch it turn white, including this original pair of swans and all others descended from them. The poemVolundarkvida, or theLay of Volund, part of thePoetic Edda, also features swan maidens.
In theFinnishepicKalevala, a swan lives in the Tuoni River located inTuonela, the underworld realm of the dead; according to the story, whoever killed a swan would perish as well.Jean Sibelius composed theLemminkäinen Suite based on theKalevala, with the second piece entitledSwan of Tuonela(Tuonelan joutsen). Today, five flying swans are the symbol of theNordic countries; the whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) is the national bird of Finland,[51] and the mute swan is the national bird ofDenmark.[52]
The balletSwan Lake is one of the most canonicalclassical ballets. Based on the 1875–76 score byPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the most promulgated choreographic version was created byMarius Petipa andLev Ivanov (1895), the premiere of which was danced by theImperial Ballet at theMariinsky Theatre inSaint Petersburg. The ballet's lead dual roles of Odette (white swan)/Odile (black swan) represent good and evil,[53] and they are among the most challenging roles created in Romantic classical ballet. The ballet is included in the repertories of ballet companies worldwide.[54]
InLatin American literature, theNicaraguan poetRubén Darío (1867–1916) consecrated the swan as a symbol of artistic inspiration by drawing attention to the constancy of swan imagery inWestern culture, beginning with the rape of Leda and ending withWagner'sLohengrin. Darío's most famous poem in this regard isBlasón – "Coat of Arms" (1896), and his use of the swan made it a symbol for theModernismo poetic movement that dominated Spanish language poetry from the 1880s until theFirst World War. Such was the dominance of Modernismo in Spanish language poetry that the Mexican poetEnrique González Martínez attempted to announce the end of Modernismo with asonnet provocatively entitledTuércele el cuello al cisne – "Wring the Swan's Neck" (1910).
InHinduism, swans are revered and likened to saintly persons who live in the world without attachment, much like a swan's feather stays dry in water. TheSanskrit word for swan ishamsa and the "Raja Hamsam" or the Royal Swan is the vehicle of theDeviSaraswati, which symbolises theSattva Guna ("purity par excellence"). The swan, if offered a mixture of milk and water, is said to be able to drink the milk alone. Therefore, Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, is seen riding the swan because the swan thus symbolizesViveka, i.e. prudence and discrimination between the good and the bad or between the eternal and the transient; this is seen as a great quality, as shown by thisSanskrit verse:
haṁsaḥ śveto bakaḥ śvetaḥ ko bhedo bakahaṁsayoḥ ।
kṣīranīraviveke tu haṁso haṁsaḥ bako bakaḥ ॥
The swan is white, the crane is white, what is the difference between the swan and the crane?
During discriminating between water and milk, the swan is a swan while the crane is a crane!
As mentioned several times in theVedic literature, persons who have attained great spiritual capabilities are sometimes calledParamahamsa ("Supreme Swan") on account of theirspiritual grace and ability to travel between various spiritual worlds. In the Vedas, swans are said to reside onLake Manasarovar during the summer and to migrate toIndian lakes for the winter; they are also believed to possess some powers, such as the ability to eat pearls.
^Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006).The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 360.ISBN0-19-928791-0.
^Horrocks, N., Perrins, C. and Charmantier, A., 2009. Seasonal changes in male and female bill knob size in the mute swan Cygnus olor. Journal of avian biology, 40(5), pp.511-519.
^Schlatter, Roberto; Navarro, Rene A.; Corti, Paulo (2002). "Effects of El Nino Southern Oscillation on Numbers of Black-Necked Swans at Rio Cruces Sanctuary, Chile".Waterbirds.25 (Special Publication 1):114–122.JSTOR1522341.
^Boev, Z. 2000. "Cygnus verae sp. n. (Anseriformes: Anatidae) from the Early Pliocene of Sofia (Bulgaria)".Acta zoologica cracovienzia, Krakow, 43 (1–2): 185–192.
^Louchart, Antoine; Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile; Guleç, Erksin; Howell, Francis Clark; White, Tim D. (1998). "L'Avifaune de Dursunlu, Turquie, Pléistocène inférieur: Climat, environnement et biogéographie" [The avifauna of Dursunlu, Turkey, Lower Pleistocene: climate, environment and biogeography].Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences - Series IIA - Earth and Planetary Science.327 (5):341–346.Bibcode:1998CRASE.327..341L.doi:10.1016/S1251-8050(98)80053-0.
^Louchart, Antoine; Vignaud, Patrick; Likius, Andossa; Mackaye, Hassane T.; Brunet, Michel (27 June 2005). "A New Swan (Aves: Anatidae) in Africa, from the Latest Miocene of Chad and Libya".Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.25 (2):384–392.doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0384:ANSAAI]2.0.CO;2.JSTOR4524452.S2CID85860957.
Louchart, Antoine; Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile; Guleç, Erksin; Howell, Francis Clark & White, Tim D. (1998): L'avifaune de Dursunlu, Turquie, Pléistocène inférieur: climat, environnement et biogéographie.C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris IIA327(5): 341–346. [French with English abridged version]doi:10.1016/S1251-8050(98)80053-0
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