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WHOOPING
CRANE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP
News Release
Just Ahead of the Ultralight-led Cranes,
Wild Whooping Crane Completes Fall Migration
November
22, 2004
Media
Contacts:
Rachel F. Levin, WCEP/USFWS
Midwest Region (WI, IL, IN), 612-713-5311
Joan Garland, WCEP/International
Crane Foundation, 608-381-1262
The first
of eastern North America’s new migratory flock of wild whooping cranes
has arrived at its winter home in Florida, as the younger, ultralight-led
cranes continued making progress on their first southward migration. The
birds are part of an effort by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
(WCEP) to establish a self-sustaining wild, migrating flock of whooping
cranes in eastern North America.
Biologists
tracking the migrating whoopers found crane 14 from the Class of 2002
at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on November 16. She was the
first of the wild birds bird to reach Florida.
The now wild
cranes were joined by a new traveling companion—crane 18-04, the
first young whooper to be conditioned behind the ultralight aircraft but
introduced among older birds to learn the migration route. Crane 18-04
was not able to complete the necessary conditioning to begin the ultralight-led
migration on October 10.
This preliminary
effort in 2004 will help prepare for supplemental releases in subsequent
years. For more information about the supplemental release technique,
go to www.bringbackthecranes.org.
The five
whooping cranes from the Class of 2003 that spent the summer in Michigan
are also on their way south for their first unassisted fall migration.
Four of them made history once again when they detoured through South
Carolina, spending some time on Cape Romain NWR, along the Atlantic coast,
before heading north into North Carolina. This is the first time whooping
cranes have been in South Carolina in more than a century. The remains
of one of the four, number 5-03, were found on Cape Romain NWR on Nov.
16. An investigation into the cause of death is ongoing.
In 2001,
project partner Operation Migration’s pilots led the first whooping
crane chicks, conditioned to follow their ultralight surrogates south
from Necedah NWR to Chassahowitzka NWR on Florida’s Gulf Coast. In
2002, WCEP biologists and pilots conditioned and guided a second group
of juvenile cranes to Chassahowitzka NWR.
In the fall
of 2003, WCEP conducted its third ultralight-led migration. Those cranes
have begun returning to their summer home in central Wisconsin, and there
are now 35 whooping cranes in the wild in eastern North America.
WCEP asks
anyone who encounters a whooping crane in the wild to please give them
the respect and distance they need. Do not approach birds on foot within
600 feet; try to remain in your vehicle; do not approach 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.
The Whooping
Crane Eastern Partnership, an international coalition of public and private
groups, is organizing the effort to reintroduce this highly imperilled
species in eastern North America, which was a part of its historic range.
Whooping
Crane Eastern Partnership founding members include 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 estimated $1.8
million budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, public
donations and corporate sponsors.
For more
information on the project, its partners, and how you can help, visit
the WCEP website at http://www.bringbackthecranes.org
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