Eight whooping crane chicks arrived June 19 at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin to begin preparation for their fall migration behind ultralight aircraft.
The eight chicks are members of the “Class of 2007,” which will be the seventh flock of endangered juvenile whooping cranes to take part in a reintroduction project sponsored by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), a coalition of public and private organizations. Thanks to WCEP’s efforts, there are now 58 wild, migrating cranes in eastern North America, which was part of their historic range.
The chicks comprise the first "cohort" of young whoopers to arrive by private aircraft from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., where the birds hatched and where a team from Patuxent and Operation Migration conducted initial imprinting and taught them to follow ultralight aircraft on the ground.
Following a checkup by a Patuxent veterinarian that showed all of the birds were healthy, they were shipped to Wisconsin in large crates, in aircraft flown by Windway Capital Corp. A quick check by International Crane Foundation veterinarians upon arrival showed the birds were ready for the short van ride to their new home on Necedah refuge, which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
More chicks will be added to this group in a few weeks, when they are mature enough to travel.
A field team from Operation Migration and Patuxent Wildlife Research Center will spend the summer strengthening the social cohesion of the Class of 2007 and teaching them to fly behind ultralights.
This fall, the team will use ultralights to guide the young cranes on their first southward migration to Florida, the cranes’ winter home.
“This year’s whooping crane training and migration will be bittersweet for us at Patuxent, and for all WCEP members and supporters, as it comes on the heels of the loss of the Class of 2006 cranes,” said John French, research manager for the whooping crane program at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. “But we have had a very successful breeding season here at Patuxent and our crane crew is eager to see the Class of 2007 spread their wings and make their first migration.”
Seventeen juvenile whooping cranes of the Class of 2006 died during violent storms in central Florida on Feb. 1-2. One crane managed to escape the pen, but was later found dead of unrelated causes.
The WCEP Project Direction Team and team leaders undertook a comprehensive review of the events leading up to the loss of these cranes, and posted its report and action plan on the WCEP Web site at http://www.bringbackthecranes.org/.
In addition to the chicks that will migrate behind ultralights, WCEP biologists are rearing 10 cranes that will be released this fall into the company of older birds at Necedah in hopes that the chicks will learn the migration route from adult whoopers. These birds hatched at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis.
WCEP is using this “direct autumn release” technique in addition to the successful ultralight-led migrations. Chicks for direct autumn release are reared in the field and released with older birds after fledging, or developing their flight feathers.
Project biologists continue to monitor veteran cranes from the Classes of 2001 through 2006, which have returned from Florida on their own. Many of these cranes are spending the summer on public and private lands in central Wisconsin. Others have been spotted in the lower peninsula of Michigan, New York state and Florida.
WCEP asks anyone who encounters whooping cranes in the wild to please give them the respect and distance they need to remain wild. Do not approach birds on foot or in a vehicle within 600 feet, and please remain in your vehicle. Do not approach cranes in a vehicle within 300 feet if on a public road. Also, please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the birds can hear you. Finally, do not trespass on private property in an attempt to view whooping cranes.
In 2001, Operation Migration’s pilots first led whooping crane chicks conditioned to follow their ultralight surrogates south from Necedah NWR to Chassahowitzka NWR. Each subsequent year, WCEP biologists and pilots have conditioned and guided additional groups of juvenile cranes to Chassahowitzka NWR.
Project staff from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service track and monitor southbound cranes in an effort to learn as much as possible about their unassisted migrations and the habitat choices they make along the way. The birds are monitored during the winter in Florida and tracked as they make their way north in the spring. ICF and Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, along with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources biologists, continue to monitor the birds while they are in their summer locations.
Returning whooping cranes have used wetlands in 35 of 72 Wisconsin counties, primarily within the lower two-thirds of the state along major rivers and wetlands. In addition to the core reintroduction area of Necedah NWR, the birds’ increased use of wetlands along the lower Wisconsin River and in more than 15 state wildlife areas, private wetlands and Horicon NWR demonstrates the value of preserved habitat to the success of this restoration effort.
Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, only about 300 birds exist in the wild. Aside from the 58 Wisconsin-Florida birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Aransas NWR the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migrating flock of approximately 60 birds lives year-round in central Florida’s Kissimmee region.
Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, live and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and aquatic plants. They are distinctive animals, standing five feet tall, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership founding members are the International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration Inc., Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team.
Many other flyway states, provinces, private individuals and conservation groups have joined forces with and support WCEP by donating resources, funding and personnel. More than 60 percent of the project’s annual budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, public donations and corporate sponsors. Chicks in this project also come from the San Antonio Zoo, Calgary Zoo and the Species Survival Center of the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.
