LAKE ELLESMERE SWANS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29295, 29 August 1960, Page 17

LAKE ELLESMERE SWANS

Fewer Bred In 1959 Season

Few of the thousands of adult black swans on Lake Ellesmere bred last season, according to the annual report of the Department of Internal Affairs. In contrast with the 1958 breeding season, when about 12,500 black swan nests were on the lake, the 1959 season resulted in only 880 nests—about 5 per cent, of the previous year’s figures. A decline in the number of eggs a nest also occurred. In 1958 there were 5.8 and in 1959 4.3. It is considered that the period of starvation during the 1959 winter was the cause of the drop in breeding. During the winter heavy losses occurred amongst the young black swan. This was due to several causes, chief of which was a very high lake level so that water weeds were out of reach of the birds. Because of strong southerly winds driving big seas on to the coast at Taumutu the lake could not be opened. Most of the older birds flew inland to feed but tens ot thousands of young birds stayed on the lake where many of them died of starvation. In the later winter a fungus disease, aspergillosis, affecting the lungs and respiratory tracts caused the death of some hundreds of young swan.