Continuing Success for Migrating Whoopers

  • Whooping cranes are being successfully trained to migrate in the Midwest. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

An experimental flock of whooping cranes is starting to head back to the Midwest. Three birds died while down South over the winter. But later this year, the migrating cranes may start creating their own little replacements. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

An experimental flock of whooping cranes is starting to
head back to the Midwest. Three birds died while down South over
the winter. But later this year, the migrating cranes may start creating
their own little replacements. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Chuck Quirmbach reports:


At least eight whooping cranes have either died or been injured
during the experiment to create a migrating flock of whoopers in the
eastern U.S. But Rachel Levin of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
argues despite the losses, the experiment is going well.


“After 4 years of ultralight led journeys with whooping cranes, we have 45 wild
cranes now where just ten years ago east of the Mississippi we
had no wild whooping cranes.”


However the crane experiment remains unpredictable. Some of the
cranes may not come back to Wisconsin where they received their
migration training behind ultralight aircraft. Last summer, several of the
birds wound up in Michigan. Also some of the cranes may now be
sexually mature and scientists are eager to see if the migrating birds
produce their first offspring.


For the GLRC, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Whoopers Prepare for Historic Flight

Ten whooping crane chicks that may go on a historic flight through part of the Midwest this fall are about to start flying lessons. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

Ten whooping crane chicks that may go on a historic flight through part of the Midwest this fall are about to start flying lessons. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports.


Public and private sector wildlife experts are trying to set up the first migrating flock of whooping cranes in the Eastern U.S. the plan is to have the birds learn their migration route this October by following ultra-light aircraft from Wisconsin to Florida. Ten two-month old whooping crane chicks have just finished the first step of the experiment at a federal wildlife center in Maryland. Joan Guilfoyle of the u-s fish and wildlife service says the chicks went through ground school.


“Right from coming out of the egg they were exposed to sounds of ultra light engines, being able to see people in costumes disguised as adult whoopers, so they would begin to associate their care and protection with those two things.”


Now the crane chicks have been brought by private plane to
Wisconsin, where ultra light pilots wearing crane costumes will give the birds flying lessons. Many of the same people worked on a test migration with smaller but more plentiful sandhill cranes last year. Guilfoyle says there are some behavioral differences between sandhills and whoopers.


“One of them is sandhills tend to migrate in groups more than whoopers…so we will learn the right number to group…may be all ten of them together or they may end up in two groups.”


A century ago, it’s believed about one thousand whooping cranes roamed parts of North America. Today, the species is endangered. The only remaining migrating flock of whoopers numbers about one hundred and seventy five. That flock spends its summers in Canada, before heading to Texas for the winter. If the human-assisted migration in Wisconsin is successful this fall, scientists hope to continue the reintroduction. And they say they could have as many as 25 breeding pairs of whooping cranes living in the Wisconsin to Florida flock within the next ten years.” For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee.