SEQUIM — Five trumpeter swans found dead in January around the Dungeness Valley were all poisoned by spent lead shot, a state wildlife veterinarian said.
One of the birds found near Woodcock and Kitchen-Dick roads and believed at the time to have been shot to death was actually poisoned, said Kristin Mansfield, veterinarian with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We have not had this many in one winter [die] in that area,” Mansfield said of the Dungeness Valley. “It’s the first time we’ve had this many die on the Peninsula.”
Tissue samples taken from the birds’ livers were found to contain lethal levels of lead.
“If this continues to be a problem, that’s going to increase the urgency of what’s going on” in the Dungeness Valley, she said.
Lead-shot poisoning cases have been historically predominant in Whatcom and Snohomish counties where the swans also winter.
Fish and Wildlife will continue to watch for other lead poisoning case in the Dungeness Valley during the next two winters to possibly identify trends, Mansfield said.
As little as three shotgun pellets ingested by a trumpeter swan, the largest waterfowl found in North America, can kill it, state officials said.
Because the feeding swans move around, it is uncertain where the toxic lead was picked up.
Mansfield said, for example, one of the birds found dead in the 3 Crabs area of Dungeness had been banded near Lynnwood in Snohomish County.
No other dead swans have been found since January, she said.
Shelly Ament, Dungeness Valley-area wildlife biologist with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, responded and picked up the swan carcasses.
The 3 Crabs swan originally believed to have been shot but which was later tested and found to be lead-poisoned only weighed 13.66 pounds with a wingspan of 6½ feet.
Normally, Ament said at the time, a swan would weigh 21 to 30 pounds.
Trumpeter swans are federally protected wildlife and cannot be hunted.
Swans collected in January included three that died in the 3 Crabs Road area and two in the pond off Woodcock Road, east of Kitchen-Dick Road.
There have been seven swans found dead since November in the Dungeness Valley area, according to Ament. One was by electrocution.
The swans feed around the Pacific Northwest during winter, according to The Trumpeter Swan Society.
Large numbers have died from lead shot picked by accident or in grit while ground-feeding in fields and elsewhere — at least 1,600 since 2001, mainly in the Northwest Washington and Southwestern British Columbia.
Lead shot was outlawed for hunting in 1991.
Toothless birds consume grit to help break up the food in their gizzards.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
