The Alaska Trumpeter Swan Survey was an aerial survey conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Migratory Bird Management, Alaska Region (MBM-AK) and partners to monitor the status of trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) in Alaska. It was first conducted in 1968 and then repeated at five-year intervals from 1975 through 2015. The objectives of the survey were to estimate the abundance, distribution (1968–2005 only), and productivity of trumpeter swans in late summer, when the swans were dispersed on breeding territories and cygnets were large enough to be easily counted from the air. Estimates were obtained for the abundance of white swans (swans >1 year old), cygnets, and total swans, as well as the number of broods, mean brood size, and the percentage of cygnets in the total swan population. Distribution was documented by recording the geographic coordinates of the swan observations. From 1968 through 2005, the survey was designed to census the entire Alaskan summering range. In 2010, MBM-AK determined that a census was cost-prohibitive and therefore switched to a sampling design. This sampling design was used again in 2015. The survey was discontinued after 2015 due to trumpeter swans’ relatively secure status in Alaska and the survey’s reduced priority relative to other conservation needs.
Results from the Alaska Trumpeter Swan Survey were also contributed to the range-wide North American Trumpeter Swan Survey (1968–2015), which occurred on the same survey schedule and included cooperators throughout North America.
Partners that helped collect data or provided funding assistance included Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Innoko NWR, Kanuti NWR, Kenai NWR, Koyukuk/Nowitna NWR, Tetlin NWR, Yukon Flats NWR, FWS Division of Law Enforcement, FWS MBM-Headquarters, U.S. Army-Fort Wainwright, Denali National Park and Preserve, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Yukon-Charley National Park and Preserve, and U.S. Forest Service Yakutat Ranger District.
