MANLIUS, N.Y. (AP) — Elegant white swans have an outsize presence in this upstate New York village measuring less than 2 square miles.
Their likeness is on village flags, community centers and welcome signs. “Swan Fest” is celebrated each fall. Residents say it’s hard to imagine Manlius without the mute swans that have inhabited a pond in the village center for more than 100 years.
Until recently, they didn’t have to. But the violent killing of one of the village’s swans in 2023 set off a battle with regulators that is forcing Manlius to make a difficult decision about the birds’ future: it’s put the village that wants to keep them at odds with a state that views them as trouble. By the end of the year, Manlius must choose: Keep its four existing mute swans but sterilize them, or retain only two of the same sex.
Either option would end the village’s annual tradition of watching the swans hatch and raise cygnets, and could signal the beginning of the end of their presence in Manlius altogether. “I don’t think they understand how important it is to this village,” said Mayor Paul Whorrall, a lifelong resident who as a boy passed the swans on his paper route and is loath to see them go under his watch. “If you take away the swans, you’re taking away a lot of the identity of the village.
” In recent years, New York has moved to limit the number of mute swans within its borders, managing them as an invasive species whose numbers have grown since they we.