Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
NEWS RELEASE
After Record-Breaking Ultralight-led Journey, Historic Group of Whooping Cranes Arrives at Florida Wintering Grounds
December 19, 2006
Contacts:
Joan Garland 608-356-9462,
x142; 608-381-1262 (cell)
Rachel F. Levin, (612) 713-5311
Sarah Palmisano, Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, (352) 563-2088, x210
Liz Condie, Operation Migration, Inc., (905) 718-1034 (cell)
Seventeen endangered whooping cranes and their surrogate parents—three ultralight aircraft—reached Florida’s Gulf coast today after a trek of more than 1,100 miles through seven states.
At 9:30 a.m., the cranes and ultralights arrived at their final destination in Marion County, first flying over a crowd of more than 800 enthusiastic spectators gathered at the Dunnellon Municipal Airport.
These cranes—the “Class of 2006”--are the sixth group to be guided by ultralights to Florida from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), an international coalition of public and private organizations, is conducting this ultralight-led reintroduction project in an effort to return this highly imperiled species to its historic range in eastern North America.
Thanks to WCEP’s efforts there are now 65 wild migratory whooping cranes in eastern North America. Once the birds from the ultralight-led Class of 2006 migrate north next spring, the reintroduced eastern population will contain 83 cranes.
"Yet another successful ultra-light migration comes to an end. This winter season is especially extraordinary with the migration of the first wild-hatched, parent-reared whooping crane chick. It’s inspiring to be part of such a successful collaborative conservation effort," said Chassahowitzka NWR manager Jim Kraus.
At 76 days, this was the longest ultralight-led migration in the history of this project. Weather-related delays kept the cranes and ultralights, flown by WCEP partner Operation Migration, grounded in locations in Wisconsin, Indiana and Georgia for up to a week or longer.
The ultralight-led Class of 2006 includes one especially significant crane. Crane 2-06 is the first whooping crane hatched from the reintroduced eastern migratory population. Hatched May 7 at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., 2-06’s parents are whooping cranes 13 and 18 from the ultralight-led Class of 2002. When these two cranes abandoned their nest containing an egg, biologists picked up the wild egg and rushed it to an incubator to hatch in captivity.
The eastern migratory population of whooping cranes also includes the first crane chick to hatch in the wild in the Midwest in more than a century. This wild whooping crane chick hatched June 22 at Necedah NWR. This chick migrated south with its parents, arriving at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on Dec. 9.
In addition to the 18 ultralight-led birds of the Class of 2006, four cranes made their first southward migration this fall as part of WCEP’s “Direct Autumn Release” program. Biologists from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reared the four cranes at Necedah NWR and released them in the company of older cranes in hopes that the young birds would learn the migration route.
This is the second year WCEP used the Direct Autumn Release method, which supplements the success of the ultralight migrations. The four 2006 Direct Autumn Release birds arrived at their wintering grounds in Florida on Dec. 8.
In 2001, Operation Migration’s pilots led the first 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.
The whooping crane chicks that take part in the reintroduction project are hatched at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md. There, the young cranes are introduced to ultralight aircraft and raised in isolation from humans. To ensure the impressionable cranes remain wild, project biologists and pilots adhere to a strict no-talking rule, broadcast recorded crane calls and wear costumes designed to mask the human form whenever they are around the cranes.
New classes of cranes are brought to Necedah NWR each June to begin a summer of conditioning behind the ultralights to prepare them for their fall migration. Pilots lead the birds on gradually longer training flights at the refuge throughout the summer until the young cranes are deemed ready to follow the aircraft along the migration route.
Most graduated classes of whoopers spend the summer in central Wisconsin, where they use areas on or near the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, as well as various state and private lands. Reintroduced whooping cranes have also spent time in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and other states.
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. The birds are monitored during the winter in Florida and tracked as they make their way north in the spring. ICF and USFWS biologists, along with Wisconsin DNR biologists, continue to monitor the birds while they are in their summer locations.
Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 500 birds in existence, 350 of them in the wild. Aside from the 65 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 55 birds lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee region. The remaining 150 whooping cranes are in captivity in zoos and breeding facilities around North America.
Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, live and breed in wetland areas, 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.
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.
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 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 annual budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, public donations and corporate sponsors.
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
-WCEP-