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WHOOPING CRANE EASTERN
PARTNERSHIP
News Release
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
Celebrates New Additions
as Reintroduced Cranes Become Parents
PDF
Version
May 10, 2006
Contacts:
Rachel F. Levin, WCEP/USFWS
Midwest Region, (612) 713-5311
Joan Garland, International Crane Foundation, 608-356-9462, x142
WCEP 06-02
The Whooping
Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP) is celebrating a milestone in its efforts
to reintroduce a wild whooping crane flock in eastern North America. The
first two chicks hatched from the reintroduced eastern migratory whooping
crane population came into the world on May 5 and 7, respectively.
Their human
caretakers -- biologists at the U.S.
Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel,
Md. -- are beaming with pride, as are all of the founding members of WCEP,
an international coalition of public and private groups.
The two chicks
hatched from the eggs of whooping cranes 13 (a male) and 18 (a female)
from the ultralight-led crane Class of 2002. The tiny chicks—numbers
2-06 and 3-06—are the second and third birds to hatch this spring
at Patuxent, and biologists anticipate that both will join the ultralight-led
crane Class of 2006, which will learn the migration route between Necedah
National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin and Chassahowitzka National Wildlife
Refuge in Florida this fall.
They will
join the 64 other endangered whooping cranes in the wild in eastern North
America thanks to WCEP’s efforts.
“All
of us in WCEP—and our many partners and supporters—are thrilled
to be able to announce the first reproduction in our reintroduced flock,”
said John Christian, co-chair of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership.
“This is a moment we have been anticipating since our efforts began
six years ago, and it represents a great leap forward in whooping crane
recovery.”
“The
hatch of these two chicks from eggs produced by reintroduced cranes in
the wild at Necedah – cranes hatched in a lab at our center, reared
by human caretakers in costume and taught migration by an ultralight aircraft
– is really impressive,” said John French, research manager
at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. “The whooper pairs at Necedah
still have some incubation and parenting skills to develop, but this is
significant milestone. The survival, migration and now reproduction of
reintroduced cranes gives us great confidence that we are on the right
track.”
Although
these two chicks are the offspring of wild cranes, they were hatched in
captivity at the Patuxent facility. Biologists removed the two eggs from
a nest at Necedah NWR after their parents wandered away from the newly
laid eggs for a long period of time.
Four other
nests with eggs incubated by reintroduced WCEP cranes were lost this spring
after the cranes left the nest, leaving their eggs vulnerable to predators
such as raccoons. WCEP is additionally pleased this year to have discovered
five attempts at reproduction; four nests were incubated at Necedah NWR
and one was found at nearby Meadow Valley State Wildlife Area. While it
is not unusual for inexperienced crane pairs to leave their nests with
eggs, project biologists decided to remove these eggs while the cranes
were still away from the nest to give them a better chance of survival.
The newly
hatched chicks will remain at Patuxent for the next few months, where
they will be reared like eggs from the captive flock--raised in isolation
from humans and imprinted on the ultralight aircraft. Then they will be
taken along with their flockmates to Necedah NWR in central Wisconsin
to begin a summer of conditioning behind the ultralights to prepare them
for their fall migration.
At Necedah,
Operation Migration pilots
will lead the birds on gradually longer training flights throughout the
summer until the young cranes are deemed ready to follow the aircraft
along the migration route.
Then the
young cranes, called colts, follow the ultralight aircraft from Wisconsin
to the Gulf Coast of Florida, where they spend the winter. They return
north each spring unassisted.
Biologists
from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service have also begun releasing additional chicks into the company of
older birds in the fall at Necedah NWR, in the hopes that the chicks will
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 with sandhill
cranes and proven successful. Four whooping cranes were released by this
method in the fall of 2005.
WCEP asks
anyone who encounters whooping cranes in the wild to please give them
the respect and distance they need to remain wild. 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,
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.
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 five 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 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 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.
-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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