puff 450 Whooping Cranes

Q. What are the best weather conditions for crane migration?

A. Cranes usually migrate with a tailwind or no wind. In spring, the cranes usually depart when high pressure systems bring sunshine to Texas (WEstern flock) or Florida (Eastern reintroduced flock) and winds coming from the south or east. Thermals and strong southeast winds provide ideal migration conditions. By taking advantage of these thermals and tailwinds, the birds flap their wings less, which saves their energy. Thermal currents aid the birds' flight by allowing them to spiral up to about a mile in altitude and then glide at up to 60 mph to the north. In fact, all along their migration path, the whoopers wait for high pressure and favorable winds to continue their migration.


Q. What are the least favorable weather conditions for migrating cranes?

A. The least favorable conditions for crane migration are low pressure systems with north winds. Low pressure systems are associated with storms. When the migrating whoopers encounter these storms with their north winds, the birds will quickly find a place to land. They'll wait for several days until the north winds rotate back around to the south.


Q. What do migrating whoopers do during bad weather?

A. Fortunately, they can tolerate cold weather very wel. They will simply wait until a winter storm is over to resume their journey north. During these storms, the whoopers will make short daily flights out to grain fields to feed, and return to wetlands to roost (spend the night). It is during these short low altitude flights where they might collide with power lines and be killed, especially during rain or snow storms when the power lines are not very visible. If northbound cranes encounter winds from the north, the birds choose not to migrate that day. Instead they will spend the day feeding in wetlands or agricultural fields.


Q. How do whooping cranes find their way when storms blow them far off course?

A. Birds have an amazing ability to recognize star patterns at night and to pay attention to the sun's angle in the sky during day. Using their internal biological clock they can tell if the sun is where it's supposed to be as the day progresses. When blown off course by bad weather, they can move in the right direction to get the sun where they need it to be to indicate the right direction for flying.


Q. What are some of the hazards that whooping cranes face on their long flight between Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and Wood Buffalo National Park?

A. Power lines, towers, hail storms, tornadoes, Peregrine Falcons, Bald and Golden Eagles, foxes, raccoons, wolves, coyotes, and steel leg traps are all potential hazards to these huge but fragile creatures. Read more about Migration Dangers and a main hazard: cell phone towers.

Q. Do all the cranes survive the migration?

A. Each year a certain number of whooping cranes do not survive the entire migration. For example, some years as many as a dozen adult cranes that leave Aransas in the spring fail to survive to return in the fall. Migration is hard work and some of the cranes simply will not be able to withstand the harsh conditions of spring blizzards or other bad weather. They also die from the human-caused hazards such as cell phone towers or even illegal shooting by hunters. Because of migration dangers, the number of young hatched each year are not added to population totals until they reach Aransas in the fall. Some of the young cranes of the new Eastern flock have died on migration as well, victims of power lines, disease, or bobcats. (Keep up with the new Eastern flock's history by checking each year's Meet the Flock charts.)

Q. How do humans affect the migration of the whooping crane?

A. Humans have a long history of filling in and draining wetlands, which reduces the safe places where cranes may rest and feed. Now the demand for fresh water needs for the fast-growing human population has become a real problem for whooping cranes' winter home in Texas. Long ago people shot at migrating cranes, and even now cranes are not safe from hunters. That's because their fall migration may coincide with goose hunting season, and hunters sometimes forget that not all white birds with black wingtips are Snow Geese. Some are whooping cranes! Humans also build tall communication towers and power lines that whooping cranes can't see. Power line collisions are the biggest cause of crane deaths during migrations. Poachers/hunters have illegally shot some Whooping cranes too.


Q. How did the study of whooping cranes begin?

A. For years, no one knew where whoopers went to nest and raise their young. Then, in 1954, a pilot flying over the remote Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories, Canada, spotted a pair of whooping cranes and a possible chick. This discovery helped scientists in the US an Canada to better study the birds and plan ways to save them from extinction. They began tracking the spring and fall migration, and telling the whooping cranes' story to the public. Read 4-th-grader Hunter's description of How the Western Flock's Nesting Grounds Were Discovered.


Q. What is the whooping cranes' status as an endangered species?



Ultralight and new Eastern Flock, 2001 Migration
Photo R. Urbanek, FWS



A. Their population hit an all time low in 1940 when fewer than 20 cranes remained in the wild. Thanks to joint efforts by Canada and the United States, their numbers have been struggling back from the brink of extinction, but the long-term fate of the whooping crane is still uncertain. In 2001 a tiny flock of whoopers was hatched in captivity, costume-reared, and led by ultralight aircraft on migration between Florida and Wisconsin in the first effort to reintroduce a second wild, migratory flock of whooping cranes to a part of their former range. Five survived the winter and returned to Wisconsin unaided in spring. Each year more whoopers will be added to the new reintroduced flock, with ultralight aircraft leading additional chicks south each fall through 2005 or a few years beyond. Then the oldest of the birds will likely be reproducing, and new captive-bred chicks can be released to learn migration from the experienced birds. A non-migratory flock lives year round in central Florida. These whooping cranes come from captive-bred whoopers and are part of a separate and ongoing reintroduction effort. Additional Whooping cranes are in captive centers in North America. Click here for current information on the total of wild and captive whoopers.


Q. What is scientists' biggest worry about whooping cranes?

A. The world's only wild flock of whooping cranes, with one summer home and one winter home, might be lost to disease, bad weather, or other natural or human-caused disaster. That's why in 2001, the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership began reintroducing a new flock into eastern North America. You can read all about that first ultralight-led migration and the following ones by clicking here.

Q. How fast is the whooping crane population growing?

A. Some recent record years for the last remaining natural flock were 1995 with an increase of 25 cranes, and 1997 with an increase of 22 cranes. The year 1999 was a struggle for the whooping cranes-and disappointing for crane biologists. The flock managed to increase their numbers by only ONE crane. But in fall of 2004, the number of whooping cranes in this flock (the Aransas/Wood Buffalo flock, or Western flock) finally went over the 200 mark! Since 2001, a tiny new Eastern flock has been slowly growing too. Click here for recent numbers.

Q. What has been done to increase the numbers of this endangered species?

A. In 1975 scientists and wildlife officials decided to use a new technique to start a second wild whooper flock. They began collecting whooper eggs from nests in Canada and taking them to Gray's Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Idaho. The whooper eggs were placed in the nests of sandhill cranes. (Removing one eggs does not affect growth of the wild flock since whoopers normally lay two eggs but usually raise only one chick successfully.) The sandhill crane foster parents hatched and raised 4 whooper chicks in 1975. They taught the young whoopers to find food and to avoid predators such as coyotes and eagles. In the fall, the sandhills led the chicks on an 850-mile migration to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. The young whoopers returned to Gray's Lake in the spring. By 2002, the number of whooping cranes in the Rocky Mountains was down to zero. In 2002, ultralight aircraft successfully led a flock of sandhills between Wisconsin and Florida . This paved the way to do the same migration experiment with endangered whooping cranes in 2001--and each year after that for at least four more years. This tiny flock will be the ancestral flock for a second migratory flock in eastern North America, where whooping cranes disappeared over a century ago. In addition, whooping cranes in a few captive breeding centers are laying eggs and hatching chicks that will become part of the growing new eastern flock in the future. In addition, a small reintroduced flock (started in 1993) lives year-round in central Florida. This flock does NOT migrate.


Q. What is the most fascinating thing wildlife biologist Dr. Tom Stehn has learned about the whooping crane since conducting research on cranes?

A. Tom says: "For me, the most fascinating thing is that the babies imprint. The very first moving creature that a baby crane sees when it hatches becomes its image of adult cranes and when the baby grows up, that will be what it seeks in a mate. So when cranes were raised in captivity and fed by humans, they fell in love with humans. The most famous example of this is Tex, a crane that was originally raised at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland and then sent to the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin. Tex bonded with crane scientist George Archibald, who had to jump up and down flapping his arms doing a crane dance with Tex every spring in order for her to lay eggs."


Q. How long do whooping cranes live?

A. A whooper can live 50 years or more. Banding studies help us learn this information, but now there's another way of keeping track of cranes that will give us information about individual cranes over the years; it's called voice prints.


Q. How are whooping cranes important to the ecosystem?

A. Whooping cranes eat a wide variety of foods, both plant and animal, and they in turn are prey for foxes, wolves, coyotes, lynxes, bobcats, and raccoons.


Q. Why are whooping cranes being reintroduced to eastern North America?

A. Whooping cranes are a highly endangered species. The only naturally occurring flock of wild migratory whooping cranes left in the world has been the one that migrates between Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. It is a huge risk to have all of the wild whooping cranes using one wintering and one breeding location. With all of the cranes concentrated in one small area, the population could be wiped out by disease, bad weather, or human impacts such as oil spills or freshwater demands. Whooping crane survival depends on additional, separate populations being established. Survival also depends on good crane habitat remaining available.


Q. Who decides how many additional populations are needed?

A. After a species is listed as threatened or endangered, the Endangered Species Act requires that a recovery plan be designed. A recovery plan is a blueprint to improve population health of threatened and endangered species. The recovery plan for whooping cranes was developed by the Whooping Crane Recovery Team, made up of five specialists from Canada and five from the United States. The Recovery Team has also decided that any new flock should be established in areas where there is very a low chance of contacting the existing wild flock. This separation will minimize the possibility of spreading diseases between newly established flocks and other existing whooping cranes.

Q. Was Wisconsin the first site considered for reintroduction?

A. No. A non-migratory flock has been reintroduced in the Kissimmee Prairie region of central Florida. As of August 2002, 89 birds were in that flock. Most of those birds are young, but two whooping crane chicks hatched in Florida for the first time in 60 years. Both chicks were taken by predators, but in the summer of 2002 one chick lived to flege. Named Lucky, it was the first wild chick fledged in the U.S. dating back to the last nesting of whooping cranes in Louisiana in 1939. Lucky is the first whooping crane fledged in Florida since the reintroduction of the nonmigratory flock started in 1993. In 1975, another attempt to reintroduce whooping cranes began in Idaho when whooping crane eggs were placed in sandhill crane nests. The sandhill cranes then became foster parents. The attempt did not succeed because the whooping cranes only recognized sandhills and would not breed with other whooping cranes when they reached adulthood.

Q. Why was Wisconsin considered as a reintroduction site?

A. The most important reason was that the Wisconsin flock will be separated from other wild flocks. Also, Wisconsin has a lot of suitable crane habitat on federal, state, and private lands. Wisconsin's long tradition of environmental commitment and suppport from the public adds up to better chances for the project to succeed. For a simulation game about choosing a new home for the whoopers, see Whoopers for Wisconsin?.

Q. How was the specific site for reintroduction in Wisconsin chosen?

A. Three Wisconsin release sites were investigated in 1999. Site selection was based on habitat analysis, local community support, and protection potential. In September 1999, the Whooping Crane Recovery Team selected Necedah National Wildlife Refuge for a test release using sandhill cranes in 2000. The migration experiment with sandhills was a success, paving the way for the same experiment to be repeated with whooping cranes beginning in 2001.




5 months old, running with handlers
Operation Migration

Q. Where do the birds for reintroductions come from?

A. The U.S. and Canada are working together to help whooping cranes. A few captive flocks have been established and they produce cranes (crane eggs) for reintroduction to the wild. Click here to see some locations with captive whooping cranes.


Q. How are the birds reintroduced?

A. In the wild, chicks follow their parents south on the fall migration, then return north the next spring on their own. When bringing back a new population of whooping cranes to a former range, no adult cranes are available to teach the young and show the way. Humans and tiny ultralight airplanes are "stand-in parents" to teach the little chicks where to go on their first migration. See "Bringing Back the Cranes: Photo Overview." Eventually, the planes won't be needed anymore. The whoopers will begin hatching and teaching their own chicks the way. This takes years, so chicks will also be added another way; a few captive-bred chicks will be released around the adult whooping cranes in Wisconsin in hopes they'll follow the adults on migration. (This is called Direct Autumn Release, or DAR, and it began in 2005.) Once is all it takes, and they'll know the route for the rest of their lives.

Q. How do ultralight-led birds know the way back home by themselves?

A. Research has shown that birds can be raised at a captive breeding center and then transported to the site chosen for their introduction, as long as the move takes place BEFORE they learn to fly. Birds seem to focus on the first location they can explore from the air. They will return to that place year after year.


Q. Why is the new Wisconsin/Florida migratory flock called nonessential experimental?

A. This population is designated as "experimental" because it will be isolated from other populations whoopers. It is called "nonessential" because these birds will not be esssential to the survival of the entire species. Under this designation, the reintroducd whooping cranes will not receive full Endangered Species Act protection. This allows greater management flexibility. It also solves some possible conflicts between people (such as farmers or landowners on the migration route) and whooping crane conservation. However, if the new Eastern whooing cranes stray outside a certain protected area of states and provinces in the new Easter migration route, they will be protected under the Endangered Species Act. For more, click here.

Q. What is the reintroduction goal in Wisconsin?

A. The Wisconsin/Florida reintroduction project will be a 10- to 15-year effort. The goal is a flock of 125 birds in Wisconsin by 2020, including 25 nesting pairs. Ultralight-led migrations will take place for at least five years after the first flight in 2001.

Q. What will it take to get whooping cranes off the endangered species list?

A. The Team decided that two additional flocks of 25 breeding pairs each (the Wisconsin/Florida migratory flock and the nonmigratory Florida flock) will be needed to improve population health to the point that whooping cranes could be downlisted from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Copyright 1997-2007 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form.






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