Neat Facts about Whooping Cranes ....

An average Whooping Crane egg is 4 inches log and weighs 7 ounces.

Whooping crane eggs are incubated for about 30 days.

Egg color varies from a soft blue to a gray-green or tan, usually with tan and brown splotches.

In the wild, both parents feed and raise the chick.

Wild female Whooping Cranes normally produce two eggs but usually only one chick survives.

Whooper chicks have down, not feathers, when they hatch.

Whoopers are born with blue eyes that change color as they grow older. At about three months, their eyes will be a vivid aquamarine color. At about six months of age their eyes will be bright gold.

Whooper parents have to teach their chicks to eat and drink. They teach them to eat by catching food for them -- insects, small fish, and invertebrates, and small mammals like mice or voles.

There is only one remaining flock of wild, migratory Whooping Cranes. This flock, numbering less than 200 birds, migrates annually from Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf coast. This arduous journey is almost 2700 miles and takes several weeks. They migrate this path with their young-of-the-year chicks, which are usually around 5 months old when the migration begins. It was this flock that once dwindled down to less than 20 birds in the early 1940's. Active intervention on the part of the United States governmnet, the Canadian government, and numerous conservation groups helped pull this flock from the brink of extinction.

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