The majestic whooping crane
Whooping cranes are heading south currently flying through Illinois on their way to their winter grounds in Florida. The only naturally occurring population of whooping cranes lives in Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park and migrates south to their wintering grounds in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. This colony consists of approximately 250 birds.
Scientists have long feared the dangers of having only one population of birds that winter in the same place. The risks are many for this population. They migrate 2,500 miles twice a year and the journey is fraught with peril. Plus their wintering grounds are far from ideal with risks of drought, human encroachment, and worsening environmental changes threatening this group. A record 23 birds did not live through last winter, which is 8.5% of this flock.
This is where Operation Migration has stepped in to try and establish a secondary colony of these amazing birds through reintroduction through captive chicks. According to Liz Condie, the Operating/Financial Officer, Director of Communications and Fund Development for Operation Migration, whooping crane eggs are sent to Laurel, Maryland to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center where they are hatched.
These chicks are raised by costumed handlers and are trained beginning even before hatching to get accustomed to aircraft. According to the Operation Migration website handlers play a recording of an aircraft engine to the eggs when turning them during incubation. Training with the aircraft continues after hatching and eventually these new chicks are ready to migrate.
Whooping cranes learn to migrate from their parents, so the captive chicks need to be shown the migration route by following an ultra light aircraft. The migration starts in central Wisconsin at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and heads south through central Illinois then through western Tennessee and Kentucky then through Alabama clipping southwest Georgia and ending in either St. Marcks Wildlife Refuge near Tallahassee, Florida or Chassahowitzka National Wildlife near Homassa, Florida.
This program began in 2001 and each year the population is strengthened by a new group of raised and introduced chicks. The 2009 class of cranes consists of 20 and they are currently in central Illinois. Once the group has been shown the way once then their instincts take over and in the spring they make the return trip north on their own.
The hope is that this colony will soon be self-supportive and start hatching chicks in the wild, but progress has been a little slow. Part of this is natural. Liz Condie explained that whooping cranes do not reach sexual maturity until 4 or 5 years of age so only a limited number of this population is able to reproduce.
However, attempts by these mature birds have not born much fruit as many of these birds have for one reason or another abandoned their nest. Liz said there are ongoing studies trying to understand and offset this phenomenon. An encouraging breakthrough did occur in 2006 when two chicks were hatched naturally and happily one of these chicks is healthy, has a mate, and Ms. Condie is hopeful that this crane will be the next to reproduce.
Operation migration is a non-profit organization and needs your support to keep these majestic creatures in the wild. If the reader has any sense of finance it can be appreciated that these studies and programs by this group are not cheap. The program offers a variety of ways to donate including being a mile marker where the donator can help pay the cost of a mile, a half mile, or a quarter mile of the migration. It is incredibly fulfilling to donate to a cause like this and see tangible results in the contribution.
Due to the sensitive nature of this endeavor the group does their best to limit human crane interaction. However, there are two great ways to view these birds on their route. The website in their in the field section will give away one or two day advance notice on where they will be taking off and publish a google map, so spectators can come and watch the take off. They also post on twitter a webcam, so people can see the birds from the home or even the office.
John Denver once wrote “you know he would be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly.” The same holds true for the whooping crane. It is North America’s largest bird. Make a donation to Operation Migration and safeguard the future for this amazing species so that America, Canada, and the world will remain a rich place.
2008 whooping crane take off
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Comments
I saw a movie about this, I LOVED it!!! Great article. Go birdies!
Operation Whoop sounds like something the Bush Administration would come up with!! Beautiful birds though as i see them as they come thru Minnesota too.
I love birds! Was supposed to check out the sandhill crane migration in Lodi, CA (about 1.5 hours east of SF), but missed the appointment windows. Hoping for a cancellation; supposed to be a beautiful spectacle to witness. You inspired me to re-watch Winged Migration again. :-) Cheers!
I only knew of the Aransas wintering grounds for the Whooping Crane. Thanks for the info on the Florida location. (Hope to see them fly over my house in Kentucky!)
Fascinating story. I am learning more about birds every day.
I love migration stories. Butterfly, birds, whales, and snowbirds. What an amazing video. Great article.
What an awseome program!
Very cool! We get the sand hill cranes in southern NM. They are amazing.
This is one of the great conservation programs to have been developed. The cranes would have become extinct here as they had lost the knowledge of where to migrate. Hopefully nesting success will improve over the next few years.
I like reading about migrations because Highland Park's Heller Nature Center near us is a stopping point for many birds. We get some of them at our house because we're nearby but not as many because though we have some woods we are part of a develped neighborhood.
Our neighborhood in the city of Houston actually has a crane. It's so out of place but somehow it survives and loves it here.
it's amazing how birds migrate in formation.
Really good article with lots of information, and some questions and ponts to ponder. The video is really worth seeing.
Have to admit, I'm a bit skeptical of conservationists' attempts to introduce species to a new habitat. Hopefully this will be a success!
I've only seen the birds on TV. It would be great to see them in person. Sounds like a day trip in the making to me. Thanks for this great story.
I hope their efforts are met with success. Beautiful birds.
Beautiful story, Ted. I saw a film once where they led a group of Canadian geese on a migration route with an ultralight. It was very touching. Cranes are so magnificent and graceful, lovely to watch. Great job.
I can't imagine anyone else writing well enough about cranes to make me interested in them. Ted Nelson is simply spellbinding! What a craftsman!
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