A Study of the Behavior of Swans

This topic submitted by Jocie Ellis, Ryan Pearl, Ryan Nootz (ellisje@muohio.edu) at 5:32 pm on 10/25/01. Additions were last made on Friday, April 19, 2002. Section: Myers

Jocie Ellis
Ryan Pearl
Ryan Nootz
Lab Packet
10/24/01

A STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOR OF SWANS

Introduction:

Our group has decided to study and observe the actions and reactions of the trumpeter swans residing at the Western pond, conveniently located on our very own Western campus. The trumpeter swan is the largest swan species and the largest waterfowl species in the world. Widely known and respected for its grace and beauty, we, too, were in awe of the magnificent pair of swans that live so close to us throughout the year. Trumpeter swans mate for life, (which explains why the two near us float so amicably along the water) and generally live between twenty and thirty years. They eat tubers and aquatic vegetation, weigh between twenty and thirty pounds, and have large wingspans of seven or eight feet. At the present time, the trumpeter swan is an endangered species in the state of Ohio and is protected from hunting. Because of massive amounts of hunting in the early 1900’s, the population of the trumpeter swan decreased to 69 members in 1932. The incredibly low number of members created an inability to migrate because of the lack of adults to teach their young this learned behavior. Though swans seem to migrate now, we wondered at great length whether the swans in Oxford lack the ability to migrate or fly, and we also harbored suspicions that their wings are clipped since we’ve never seen them in flying motion. Swans were absent from most Ohio wetland areas, until they began to be slowly reintroduced by the Ohio Division of Wildlife and other organizations.
The basic purpose we want to achieve through our “Study of the Behavior of Swans” lab is to learn more about the behavior of the swans in the context of their environment and in relation to acoustics. This will be accomplished through a series of five groups of sound, where each group provides unique data concerning the aggressive tendencies and reactions of swans. Through the introduction of specific acoustics, extensive observations and the collection of data, we plan to record the behavior we see in the hopes that this information will help others gain a better understanding of the swans and of the importance of studying animal behavior. In our tests, we want other students and peers to discover why the swans should be respected and appreciated as valuable members of an aquatic wetland ecosystem. Not only do these excellent specimens bring a sense of peace to passers-by, and add exotic beauty to the campus; they also serve a specific purpose in their niche in the environment around them.
There are a large variety of factors to observe and experiment with, but some of them, such as discovering the sexes of the individual swans, needed to be discarded because we do not want to harm or negatively interfere with the birds in their natural habitat. We contacted Don Reed, of the Grounds Crew of Miami University, who told us that the swans are a pair, consisting of a male and a female. He was unaware of how old the swans were, but said that the male swan that resides at Western pond now replaced another male who became injured and was removed years ago. The pair was donated to Miami University, and their wings are clipped, preventing them from flying. The Grounds Crew of Miami University monitors the health and safety of the swans, as well as providing them with crack corn for nourishment, particularly in the winter season.

Purpose and Hypothesis:
We will chart how the swans react to different audio response stimuli, including human, competitor, predator, musical and native bird noises. Each noise will be introduced to the pair of Trumpeter swans from a hidden area, so that the swans will not see the source of the noise. The distance between the noise and the swans, and the volume of the sound will remain constant throughout our experiments, to keep the observations as accurate as possible. We have created hypotheses for the swan’s reactions to each noise. In response to the sounds of humans, we think that the swans will we curious and slightly alarmed. We also feel, however, that, because people visit Western pond often, the swans may be adjusted and acclimated to human interference and may return to their normal activities shortly after the sound is introduced. In response to competitor and predator sounds, we think there will be a higher level of aggressive behavior and the swans should exhibit signs of agitation and alertness. When bird calls are played near the swans, we expect the swans to ignore the noise because the calls will be native to Western pond, and therefore, the swans will be used to hearing them throughout their daily life. When music is played near the swans, we anticipate a high level of curiosity. We plan on using rap and classical music, and noting the differences in behavior as the swans hear the different music. There will be great agitation and peaceful calm behavior respectively.

Materials:
Tape Recorder
Tape Measure
Bird Calls
Rap and Classical CD’s
CD and/or Tape Player
Methods:
The following are the five different groups of audio response stimuli that we plan to test the swans with:

1. Human Sounds: talking, shouting, laughing
2. Competitor Sounds: Trumpeter Swans (competition within species), Canadian Geese
3. Regular Bird Sounds: crow calls, bird calls native to Western pond
4. Predator Sounds
5. Music: rap vs. classical

Each audio response stimuli will be placed on a CD or tape and will be played through a CD or tape player that will be kept from view of the swans. We will also remain unseen as we record their reactions.
We feel that concentrating solely on how acoustics affect the swans keeps our testing specific, and will thus produce concrete data and information. Because there is a plethora of activities one can carry out to test swan behavior, sticking to one idea will provide for more legitimate results and create additional information about swan behavior for interested persons to refer to. Our experimental design is sound, and we will make it valid through graphs, tables and charts that record the swans reactions.

In-Class Activity:
For our activity in-class, we plan to carry our observations further. First, we plan to give the class some background on swans in general, and also tell them what specifics we have discovered about the two swans on Western Pond. We will present our hypothesis and our findings concerning our research question and attempt to lead a discussion about the possible effects acoustics may have on swans. We want to know what our peer’s hypotheses about the different audio response stimuli affecting the swans. Because the swans moods and safety are volatile, we cannot lead the large amount of people in the class to Western Pond to test for our own experiments. Too many people would affect the constant that the swans should not see the source of the acoustic. Instead, we have created a slightly different experiment that will go along with our purpose and previous work. The class will be divided into four groups, each with a specific test to enact that researches the swan’s reactions to entertainment music vs. nature music. Two groups will receive tapes that have sounds from nature, such as a tropical rain forest or ocean waves. The remaining groups will receive tapes that play music that humans listen to, such as jazz or opera. They will record the consequent swan behavior. We will be overseeing the ways in which the class tests the swans, and our group will decide if the data collected in the class activity can be trusted and used as a basis for results. Our hypothesis, however, is that the swans will ignore all types of music. We think that, because they are acclimated to the sounds of traffic and human encroachment (visitors of Western pond and construction noises) that they will be unfazed by the sounds from our class activity.

Articles:
Whereas other student-generated labs are broader in scope, and cover information that has been researched for long periods of time, it is hard to find experiments that involve studying swan behavior. From our research, we know basic information on the two swans from data accumulated from other Natural Systems groups throughout the last few years. We also discovered websites during our extensive Internet research, which offered valuable information on swans, their lifestyles, and the environment in which they live. One group, from the website http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/finalarticles.html, titled their lab “A study in the Behavior of Swans.” They performed only color testing, observing whether or not the swans would react to different colored balls floating along the surface of the water they glided across. The group developed high suspicions after testing that one of the swans was either blind or had terrible eyesight. This group had great sources to complete their lab and help them broaden their knowledge base, which has prompted us to look for books as well as Internet sites in our research material. Another group titled their project “A Study of Life on Western Pond” and we found them through the Internet site http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall99/FinalArticles/ASTUDYOFLIFEONWESTERNPOND.htm This group based all of their testing on three variables, which were how the swans would react to people standing, walking and feeding. This is more closely matched to our own objectives, but they decided to include all of the life forms that inhabit the western pond, so they spent much less time with the swans than we will. Other websites gave us great information on swans, such as www.clemetzoo.com/swans.html. This site gave us general information about the trumpeter swan. The Cleveland Metropark Zoo is involved in reintroducing many swans into the environment. The site has basic information about swans as well as more detailed information about their behavior, history and their habitat. The behavior and habitat information will be the most helpful to our project because it will give us ideas of how they tend to act and how they behave as well as the kinds of animal sounds that we can use as stimuli based on what lives in their natural habitat. Another site connected to the zoo is http://www.clemetzoo.com/animals/animal_info/swan_trumpeter.html, which contains all of its information on one page, and is very concise and straightforward. It will be a good basis for our study, acting as a superior reference guide about the swans. The site www.taiga.net/swans/swanid.html explains the differences between the Mute, Tundra and Trumpeter swan, and gives specific measurements of each animal, including weight, wingspans and egg length in all three species. Also discussed were the head and neck movements, posture, and proportion of neck and body length. The site http://vquest.com/swan/fact.html is a website for an organization that wants to make the public more aware about the lives and habits of swans. It imparts knowledge through interesting swan facts and trivia and discusses management activities and solutions for increasing swan population. The short website found at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu is from the department of zoology at the University of Michigan, and gives fundamental swan information, as well as classifying the trumpeter swan with its scientific name. It also explains geographic ranges, food habits and reproduction that will be of use to our studies and us. The site http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/factsheets/birds/swan.htm is extremely extensive and quite detailed. It includes a great deal of information about the trumpeter swan as well as the mute and tundra swans. It contains descriptions of the swan’s physical attributes as well as their behavioral patterns. It also describes how swans breed and how the young are cared for, while covering mating and territorial patterns. Another aspect of this site deals with restoration and redistribution projects and goals and we consider this site critical in our understanding of the swans at western pond. Most importantly, while each of the tests and experiments we looked at in our research were valid and legitimate in their own rights, our project will help ourselves, our peers and others learn specifically about swans and how they react to different sounds in their native environment.

Data
We will create a data chart in which we record the time of day we observed the swans (our variable), the level of aggressiveness on a scale from one to ten, additional observations on behavior, and what activity the swans were partaking in at the time of observation. There will be a great deal of analyzing we will have to do once we obtain our results from our study of the swans. We will form ways to evaluate the data that we acquire, such as graphing and charting. We will chart our observations of the swans and their reactions to the different stimuli we test on them. We will have categories of the swans’ behavior in reaction to our stimuli, such as aggressiveness, observed comfort, gentleness, apprehensiveness; the level of each type of behavior will be measured by our own relative scale.

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