As Winter Approaches the Midwest, Wild Whooping Cranes Head for Florida

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November 22, 2005

Contacts:
Chuck Underwood, 904-232-2580, x109
Rachel F. Levin, 612-713-5311

Five male whooping cranes making their southward migration unassisted for the first time recently arrived at Florida’s Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. These yearling cranes are the first of the ultralight-reintroduced eastern whooping crane flock to complete the 2005 winter migration.

Cranes 2, 3, 12, 16 and 17 from the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership’s Class of 2004 arrived at Chassahowitzka, on Florida’s Gulf coast, at 2:05 p.m. on Nov. 17. They had left French Creek State Wildlife Area in southern Wisconsin on Nov. 9. Two female cranes, numbers 19 and 20 from the Class of 2004, arrived in Florida ahead of the males but stopped short of Chassahowitzka, in Madison County.

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, or WCEP, 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. There are now 45 whooping cranes in the wild in eastern North America.

Many other members of the newly-established eastern migratory flock of whooping cranes have also begun their fall migrations, pushed out of their summer homes at Necedah NWR and on public and private property around central Wisconsin by the first blast of wintry air to hit the upper Midwest.

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. Each subsequent year, WCEP biologists and pilots have conditioned and guided additional groups of juvenile cranes to Chassahowitzka NWR.

This year’s class of ultralight-led whooping cranes and their human escorts are currently in Tennessee, about halfway through their journey from Wisconsin to Florida. Twenty cranes and four ultralights departed from Necedah NWR on Oct. 14.

The youngest of the ultralight birds, number 26, was found dead in its pen on Nov. 10, at a stopover in Indiana. It had one visible injury, around the left eye. A brief field examination by a veterinarian shed little light on the bird’s death, and it was sent to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., for a necropsy.

In addition to the chicks migrating behind ultralights, WCEP biologists also released four additional chicks this fall into the company of older birds at Necedah in the hopes that the chicks will learn the migration route from adult whoopers.

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 then released with older birds after fledging, or developing their flight feathers. This method of reintroduction has been extensively tested and proven previously successful with sandhill cranes.

As of November 22, the four direct autumn release birds had not yet left central Wisconsin.

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.

WCEP is a consortium of private organizations, government agencies and private donors working to reintroduce a migratory flock of whooping cranes back into eastern North America. The ultimate goal of the project is to reintroduce enough whooping cranes to the flyway to establish a self-sustaining flock containing at least 25 adult breeding pairs. More than 60 percent of the project's estimated $1.8 million per year budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, donations and corporate sponsors.

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, U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center, International Whooping Crane Recovery Team, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. Many other flyway states, provinces, private individuals and conservation groups have joined forces with and support WCEP by donating resources, funding and personnel.

-WCEP-

Educators and students are encouraged to visit Journey North for information and curriculum materials related to the whooping crane project: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/crane/index.html

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