Planes Train Endangered Cranes To Migrate

by Vic Micolucci - NPR.

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Preparing for Ultralight-led Migration

By Joe Duff

When you set out to make a list of all the things that must be done before the migration can begin, you first have to decide where to start. I have a bad habit of beginning every story with too much background information. One word answers are not my forte.

Only a very few have had the honor and privilege of leading a migration of endangered birds halfway across the country and we owe that front seat vantage point to a hundred others who have worked very hard to make it possible. Before you talk about migration preparation it seems only fair to credit all those who made it happen, yet are not able to come along.

There are nine founding agencies in the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership and sixty-two people attended the fall meetings in Necedah in mid-September. Each of them plays a vital role and without their participation there wouldn’t be one whooping crane in the eastern flyway let alone 78.

It starts every year at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center where the crane ecology team and OM conduct the imprinting and early conditioning. The WCEP health team (at this time of year from ICF) help with the arrival of the birds at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and again for the pre-migration health check in September.

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