Wildlife experts may alter a plan to establish the first summertimenesting flock of whooping cranes in the eastern U.S. The scientists saya test flight with sandhill cranes taught them a few things. The GreatLakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach has the story:
Transcript
Wildlife experts may alter a plan to establish the first summertime nesting
flock of whooping cranes in the eastern U.S. The scientists say a test flight with sandhill cranes taught them a few things. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach has the story.
Eleven sandhill cranes recently arrived in Florida, after following an ultralight aircraft across the Midwest and South for six weeks. If the sandhills successfully return to Wisconsin next spring, a similar test migration may happen next Fall with a flock of endangered whooping cranes. U.S. Fish and
Wildlife spokesperson Joan Guilfoyle says based on the sandhill crane experiment the next flight with whoopers may start later in the year.
“We don’t want to run into warm weather if we can help it because the birds don’t fly as well when the air is warm and there’s less oxygen. They get tired more easily.”
Guilfoyle says the flight from Wisconsin may also head more directly south to avoid air pockets over hilly terrain. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chuck Quirmbach reporting.