Black-necked swan

Facts

IUCN LEAST CONCERN (LC)

Facts about this animal

A smaller swan with a body-weight of about 5.4 kg in males and 4 kg in females.

The plumage of the body is white, head and neck are black with a thin white stripe across the eye. A red knob or carbuncle at the base of the grey bill is enlarged in males at breeding season.

The black-necked swan has short wings, but still is a fast flyer.

Breeding season is from July to November. The female lays 4 to 7 cream-coloured eggs, in a bulky nest, which may be partially floating. The eggs are incubated for 36 days exclusively by the female. The young are light grey in colour and have black bills and feet. They obtain their black and white coat in their second year of life.

Did you know?
that swan parents will carry cygnets on their back while swimming, enabling the parents to regain weight lost to the rigours of mating, egg laying, incubation, simultaneous feeding, and brooding? This practice also provides protection for the downy cygnets.

Factsheet
Class	AVES
Order	ANSERIFORMES
Suborder	ANSERES
Family	ANATIDAE
Name (Scientific)	Cygnus melancoryphus
Name (English)	Black-necked swan
Name (French)	Cygne à cou noir
Name (German)	Schwarzhalsschwan
Name (Spanish)	Cisne cuellinegro
Local names	Brasil: Cisne-de-pescoço-preto
CITES Status	Appendix II
CMS Status	Appendix II (as Anatidae spp.)

Photo Copyright by
Dori

Distribution

Distribution
Range	South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Falkland Islands, Paraguay, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Uruguay, and vagrants to Antarctica.
Habitat	Shallow sea and freshwater wetland including bogs, marshes, swamps, fens, peatlands, lakes, estuaries.
Wild population	The global population is estimated to be 26,000 to 100,000 individuals by Wetlands International (2002).
Zoo population	299 reported to ISIS (2006).

In the Zoo

How this animal should be transported

For air transport, Container Note 17 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.

Find this animal on ZooLex

Photo Copyright by
Teun Spaans

Why do zoos keep this animal

The black-necked swan is not a threatened species. Zoos keep them for educational purposes e.g. in themed South American exhibits, and as an ambassador species for wetland conservation.

How this animal should be kept

Unless a lot of space is available allowing the birds to disperse, pairs should be separated during the breeding season in an enclosure or aviary with a recommended land surface of 200 m² and a water surface of 80 m². For the rest of the year, the swans may be kept in larger social groups. If kept in multispecies waterfowl exhibits, the species should be selected in a way to avoid hybridisation. Note that WAZA has adopted the policy of outphasing pinioning, and that several countries prohibit the use of surgical methods for flight restraint.

Black-necked swans need access to grass for food. Supplementary feeding, in the form of pellets can be a substitute in the winter months, when grass levels are low. All food stored must be kept in a dry condition. If it becomes damp it should not be used. It is important that the food fed is fresh. If food is fed into water, only as much as will be readily eaten should be given. All feed containers in pens should be cleaned regularly. Grit should be available on a regular basis, and additional limestone grit should be fed on available annually, just prior to the egg-laying season.