Our Fellow Flyers Head Home
Among the signs of
springtime these days in central Wisconsin is the arrival of wild
whooping cranes on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and the other
public and private lands these majestic birds call their summer
homes.
Biologists with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP),
which is coordinating an effort to return migrating whooping cranes
to eastern North America, announced today that 15 reintroduced
whooping cranes had arrived on or near Necedah NWR, and two others
were roosting along the Wisconsin River.
Thanks to the efforts of WCEP, an international coalition of
public and private groups, there are now 64 endangered whooping
cranes in the wild in eastern North America, which was part of
their historic range.
The newly arrived whooping cranes represent the migration
“classes” of 2001 through 2004, which were guided
southward by ultralight aircraft their fledging grounds at Necedah
NWR to their winter habitat at Chassahowitzka NWR on the Gulf coast
of Florida.
The most recent ultralight-reintroduced cranes, the Class of
2005, remain at their pensite at Chassahowitzka. These birds have
begun taking short evening flights in the immediate area of the
pen. The 19 birds of the Class of 2005 arrived in Florida on Dec.
13, 2005, after a 64-day migration.
In addition to the 19 chicks that migrated behind ultralights in
2005, biologists from the International Crane Foundation and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also released four additional chicks
last fall into the company of older birds at Necedah NWR, in the
hopes that the chicks would learn the migration route from adult
whoopers or sandhill cranes.
WCEP is using this “direct autumn release” technique
to complement the known success of the ultralight-led migrations.
Chicks for direct autumn release will be reared in the field and
released with older birds after fledging, or developing their
flight feathers. This method of reintroduction has been extensively
tested and proven successful with sandhill cranes.
As of March 24, two of the 2005 direct autumn release birds had
embarked on migration and were in Indiana; the other two remain in
Florida.
WCEP asks anyone who encounters whooping cranes in the wild to
please give them the respect and distance they need. Do not
approach birds on foot within 600 feet and try to remain in your
vehicle. Do not approach cranes in a vehicle within 600 feet or, if
on a public road, within 300 feet. 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, project partner 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.
The whooping crane chicks that take part in the reintroduction
project are hatched at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent
Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., where they are introduced
to ultralight aircraft and raised in isolation from humans. To
ensure the impressionable cranes remain wild, project biologists
and pilots adhere to a strict no-talking rule, and use recorded
adult crane calls to communicate with the young birds. Researchers
wear costumes designed to mask the human form whenever they are
around the cranes.
New classes of cranes are taken to Necedah NWR each June to
begin a summer of conditioning behind the ultralights to prepare
them for their fall migration. Pilots lead the birds on gradually
longer training flights at the refuge throughout the summer until
the young cranes are deemed ready to follow the aircraft along the
migration route.
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. ICF and
FWS biologists, along with Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources biologists, track the cranes as they make their way
north, and continue to monitor the birds while they are in their
summer locations.
In the first four years of the project, 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
National Wildlife Refuge, 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 64
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 National
Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migrating flock of
approximately 60 birds lives year-round in the central Florida
Kissimmee region.
Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison
calls, live and breed in wetlands, where they feed on crabs, clams,
frogs and aquatic plants. They are distinctive animals, standing 5
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 Resource, 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 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 budget comes from private sources in the form
of grants, donations and corporate sponsors.