Not Much Progress Yet for Whooping Cranes

November 10, 2008 — How many ways can you say “too windy” or “winds out of the wrong direction?” Probably not as many ways as Operation Migration workers can. Twenty-four days after leaving central Wisconsin’s Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, a group of young whooping cranes learning the migration route to Florida from surrogate parents – ultralights - are still in Wisconsin. They’ve traveled just 95 miles of the 1,250-mile route, with 20 of the 24 days being down due to strong winds, rain and otherwise nasty weather. The four ultralights and14 juvenile cranes are following a new route this year, passing through Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia to reach the birds’ wintering habitats at Chassahowitzka and St. Marks National Wildlife refuges along Florida's Gulf Coast. The decision to split the birds between the two habitats comes after the loss in February 2007 of 17 of the 18 Class of 2006 whooping cranes in a severe storm at Chassahowitzka NWR. According to field reports, the hardest thing about no-fly days is keeping the chicks from getting bored. “Imagine 14 teenagers all in your basement on a rainy day and there is no TV or stereo or Internet,” Ben Paulan writes in the Field Report. “Nightmarish! Well, my job might not be quite that bad, but I do not want the chicks to get bored. Boredom leads to trouble, whether aggression, or pecking at things on the pen that shouldn't be pecked.” They give the cranes things like squash and corn to keep them busy, but Paulan reports that pumpkins are a favorite. “As soon as the pumpkin gets broken up, every chick either claims a piece to carry around, or starts pecking away at the chunks and seeds,” she writes. This is the eighth group of birds to take part in the reintroduction by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, an international coalition of public and private groups. Today, there are only about 525 birds in existence, 375 of them in the wild. Aside from the 68 birds reintroduced by WCEP, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests in the Northwest Territories of Canada and Texas Gulf Coast.

Workers mask their appearance when working with the young cranes so they stay wild. Photo: Operation Migration The cranes take flight. Photo: Operation Migration Following the ultralight, the young cranes are learning migratory route. Photo: Operation Migration

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