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White on White 5721

Trumpeter swans swim along the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park. Trumpeters are the heaviest bird native to North America and overall, the largest waterfowl species on earth. They were heavily hunted in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and by the early 1900's had become rare to extinct in much of the United States. Due to conservation efforts their numbers have rebounded, thought their distribution is far smaller than it had been initially. Efforts to repopulate areas have been largely unsuccessful. In some areas mute swans have affected repopulation efforts as they compete with trumpeters for habitat.

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Uploaded on January 29, 2014
Taken on January 16, 2014