DAVIS COUNTY, Utah — State wildlife officials responded to an unusual number of dead and injured swans Saturday and are waiting to find out if extreme weather was the culprit.
The Division of Wildlife Resources received several reports across Salt Lake and Davis counties. As of Saturday afternoon, they had found four dead and one injured in Davis County, and two dead and four injured in Salt Lake County, DWR's Mark Hadley told FOX 13. All the birds were wild trumpeter and tundra swans.
The injured swans were taken to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah, located in Ogden.
Those that were found dead will be examined Monday to attempt to determine the cause(s) death. However, Hadley said it did not appear that the animals were shot nor sustained any other sort of visible physical trauma. The agency hopes to find out if the winter storm overnight had a part to play.
Hadley added that in nearly 25 years working for the DWR, he hasn't seen an incident like this where so many wild swans were found injured or dead in such a small time frame.
Anyone else who finds injured or dead swans in Utah this weekend is asked to call their local police department, which will then pass the information on to the agency.
