A lake resident filmed two girls on a watercraft, revving right through a family of swans off the Big Lake Lodge dock last Thursday.

A baby swan reportedly dragged up onto the lakeshore before it died, though it's not clear whether that cygnet was a watercraft victim. The swan family showed up at the dock with three babies.

Now the search is on for the suspected swan killers.  Lodge owner Houston Snyder posted his video of "the attack" on YouTube last week. Snyder ended with: "If you know them, let them know what you think ... Please forward to all your friends!!"

The video had nearly 600 views. A news story that ran on KTUU-TV in Anchorage filtered through the airwaves. An NBC affiliate in Knoxville, Tenn., ran the story with the headline, "Girls accused of killing baby swan."

"The NBC affiliate in Burbank called to see if we'd release the YouTube video," Terry Snyder, Houston's wife, said. "Ellen hasn't called yet. Or Matt Lauer. This has gotten to be quite the thing in Big Lake."

An agent from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was expected to visit the lake in hopes of finding the girls, though it's unlikely they would face more than a good talking-to. The birds are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

"Unless we can discover who the two girls are there's probably not much we can do with it," said Bruce Woods, a spokesman for the agency in Anchorage.

At Big Lake, neighbors are knocking on Lynda Tyler's door to kick in donations for a reward, currently at $200.  "Ours is not to really punish anyone," said Tyler, a community council member. "We're just trying to bring to light. You need to educate kids before you turn them loose on jet skis."

Word about the swan slaughter spread like wildfire through Big Lake last week after Snyder sent out a mass e-mail with a link to the YouTube video.

"June 12, 2008 around 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. two girls on a wave runner attacked 2 Swans and their 4 babies ... the first time might have been a mistake but the next 4 times were not!" he wrote.

The first clip shows two adults and four babies on a peaceful evening outing. Water splish-splashes, the birds dip into the lake to feed, a dog barks in the distance and a red wing blackbird trills nearby.

The next clip shows two girls on one watercraft, turning and revving right through the swan family. One of the adults flies up before they run it over, but the other swims around, honking and clearly agitated.

Snyder in his e-mail stated the girls took off toward the old Klondike Bar, after he and a couple of people in canoes yelled at them.

The lake, historically a rowdy spot and Anchorage getaway, has settled down some in recent years as year-round residents moved in, and lakeside bars shut down.

Residents say the quiet is bringing back the birds. Tyler said she's seen a loon nesting on the creek for the first time in years. Swans raised on the lake as babies are coming back to nest and start families of their own.

Terry Snyder said the point in publicizing the whole thing is education - not just for the girls in the middle of this storm, but lake residents in general. Maybe it's time to update the local lake management plan to better protect all the wildlife coming back since the lake has "matured," Snyder said.

"There's a rush to judgment this was a 'weekender,'" she said. "This incident happened on a Thursday night, it could very well have been anyone. It's the largest recreational lake in Alaska. We need to learn to live together."

Reference:

Anchorage Daily News