Are they really dangerous creatures? The “Special Situation” of the Swan, which is becoming more and more ferocious.

A whooper swan at the water’s edge of Teganuma Swamp in Chiba Prefecture. When I pointed my lens at it, it opened its beak wide and gave me a threatening “shriek.

The whooper swan, a non-native species, is native to Europe and is characterized by a black knob-like projection on the top of its beak. Imported to Japan in the 1950s, they were released and bred in the moat of the outer gardens of the Imperial Palace, where they escaped and became wild. When its wings are spread, it can reach a height of 2 meters. The number of whooper swans is now gradually increasing. Kazuo Kamiyama, a researcher at Bird Research, a non-profit organization that conducts bird surveys, says, “There are at least 500 of these birds in Japan.

There are at least 500 whooper swans in Japan, and their numbers seem to be gradually increasing across the country, albeit at a slower pace. The Tone River and its watershed areas, such as Teganuma and Ushiku-numa (Ibaraki Prefecture), account for 40% of the total number of birds. This is because they are fed by people and have an abundance of waterweeds.

The species is now found in Hokkaido and Kyushu as well, but the increase in population has caused some problems.

They eat rice that has just been planted in rice paddies near the water’s edge. According to Chiba Prefecture, the amount of damage in FY’2010 was about 3.1 million yen.’ In FY 2008, 107,800 m2 of rice paddies, equivalent to 2.3 Tokyo Domes, were ravaged, and the damage amounted to 12.45 million yen. Upon receiving a call, city officials rush to the site and set ropes in the rice paddies to drive them out or capture them and release them into the swamp. However, the animals are territorial and sometimes return to the swamp, which is a headache for us.

What is even more serious is that in some cases they have gone berserk and attacked people. At a lake in Hokkaido, a birdwatcher was attacked and suffered broken bones. In the U.S. state of Illinois, a man who was taking care of a whooper swan was attacked and drowned in a pond.

A man who was taking care of a man who was being attacked by a bobwhite in Illinois, USA, drowned. Most of the reason they go berserk is to protect their chicks and young. In order to reduce damage to crops, it is necessary to reduce the population. The government is taking measures such as calling on people not to feed the swans, but this has not led to a fundamental solution.

Swans with their young are cute to look at, but one must be very careful when approaching them.

From the August 16, 2024 issue of FRIDAY