Sisters loses a beloved resident Pete, Aspen Lakesâ trumpeter swan, has succumbed to a bacterial infection.
photo by Al Krause
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photo by Jerry Baldock Sisters and the Aspen Lakes Community recently lost a beloved resident.
Pete, a male trumpeter swan and mate to Eloise, had to be humanely euthanized after battling a lethal infection. The loss not only has the local community mourning, but is also a blow to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/The Trumpeter Swan Society breeding restoration program.
Pete was recently discovered to be lame by an Aspen Lakes resident. He was taken to Broken Top Veterinary Clinic for examination and X-rays. Dr. Lodge found no evidence of a break or fracture, so it was hoped that he had a sprain. Pete was transferred to Think Wild in Bend for rehabilitation. When he didn’t respond to initial treatments, a further work up was done and those results revealed a bacterial infection.
SISTERS â The most prolific trumpeter swan pair in Oregonâs breeding program experienced a tragic turn of events Saturday when the male, Pete, died from a bacterial infection.
Pete and his mate, Eloise, produced 15 young in the past three years from their home at the Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters. The pair was a boost to the stateâs effort to repopulate the threatened species.
Eloise is now the second swan in Central Oregon to lose a mate in recent months, after Gracie, the resident swan at Sunriver Nature Center, was killed in October, leaving her mate, Gus.
Wildlife officials relied on the two pairs to produce young in the protected environments at the golf course and at the nature center. The babies, or cygnets, were then sent to live in the wild at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area, a 19,000-acre wetland in central Lake County that is ideal wetlands for swans.