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Trumpeter Swan to Embark from Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- What's loud, gray and covered in feathers? A baby trumpeter swan, born and bred in Baltimore, getting ready to embark on a new journey.

The baby swan doesn't have an official name, but it's quite popular with Maryland Zoo visitors.

The gray swan is a baby girl, who hatched at the zoo last May and it will be moving on in a few days.

"Right now she is a juvenile so she has that gray plumage. Usually around their 2nd winter they turn white like their parents," said bird curator Jen Kottyan.

In the 1930's there were less than 70 trumpeter swans in the country.

"And that was due to several reasons. One was over hunting, and another one was habitat loss, so they needed to be protected," said Kottyan.

The parent swans have been doing most of the raising themselves. Showing her what to do, how to protect herself and where to find food.

"We didn't want her to imprint on people. We wanted to give her the best chance of survival in the wild as she could," said Kottyan.

The baby swan or cygnet will be transferred to a larger aviary in Iowa at the end of the week. Where she can roam and flap her feathers with 15 others just like her.

"It does sound like a trumpet," said Kristen Steck, a zoo visitor.

It's trumpet sound is how they communicate with each other.

"They'll flap their wings bow their heads and trumpet to each other when they're doing breeding behaviors and it's also a territorial and aggressive call too," said Kottyan

"It startled me a bit but it was cool. It was neat," said Richard Stanley.

The baby swan will spend a few months in Iowa and then will be released to the wild in the spring.

With the help of this conservation project, about 100 trumpeter swans have been hatched in zoos across the country.

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