New Flock of Whooping Cranes Makes its Way North on Its Own

A new wild flock of five endangered Whooping Cranes has returned to Wisconsin from its wintering grounds in Florida. Last fall the flock made history, "guided" south by ultralight aircraft and a large contingent of surrogate parents on the ground. It was the first time a migration of the endangered Whooping Crane had taken place in the eastern North America since 1911.

The captive-reared Whooping Cranes were taught to migrate using a unique "mechanical" parenting technique developed by Canadians, William Lishman and Joseph Duff. They perfected the method by first using this tiny plane with Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes and their work was featured in the 1996 film, Fly Away Home. In 1994 Operation Migration, a non-profit organization was established to continue their work and investigate using the technique to safeguard endangered Whooping Cranes from possible extinction.

The Whooping Crane flock followed the specially designed aircraft along the 2000-kilometre route, from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge to a pre-selected site at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge Reserve in Florida. The cranes were led along a traditional Sandhill Crane migration route.

As with natural parents, the birds had to develop an independence from their surrogate parents to prepare for the flight north by themselves. Bobcats on the wintering site killed two of the original seven cranes.

Two of the returning cranes were fitted with satellite transmitters, the data from which enabled trackers – biologists travelling a ground route – to chart the cranes' progress. The cranes averaged six hours in the air on the days they were able to fly. On April 19, four of the five cranes arrived at Necedah, while the fifth was in the area, being fashionably late it appeared. They covered the entire migratory route in just 10 days, while the journey south with the ultralights took 50 days to complete. Then two weeks later, to the day, the last crane joined her mates.

Establishing this eastern flock now gives North America two migrating flocks. A new generation will be led south each year for the next five years. It is expected to take 10 to 15 years for it to grow to a self-sustaining population of 25 breeding pairs. This, researchers hope, will help to ensure the survival of the species.

Meanwhile the wild flock of 174 Whooping Cranes in western North America instinctively also began migrating from Aransas Wildlife Refuge in Texas. On April 18, cranes had been spotted in central Saskatchewan. They are nearing the end of their 4000-kilometre journey to their breeding grounds in the secluded wilderness of Wood Buffalo National Park along the Alberta/Northwest Territories border. This flock's numbers have declined slightly in the last three years, due to lower-than-average reproductive success.

Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service first became involved in whooping crane monitoring in 1954, when the nesting site of the world's last migrating flock of 21 whooping Cranes was discovered in a remote corner of Wood Buffalo National Park. It marked the beginning of a long-standing co-operative Whooping Crane recovery program among Canadian and US wildlife agencies and nongovernment organizations. Today these efforts include the captive breeding programs in place at five centres in North America – one in Canada and four in the United States.

In 1986, Environment Canada established a Whooping Crane Hotline for volunteer observers to report their sightings in western Canada. Farmers, hunters, bird watchers and others are now part of the monitoring program. Sightings can be reported by telephone at (306) 975-5595 or on the Internet at Environment Canada's Whooping Crane Web site.

An Internet-based educational program, Journey North, communicates the fascinating aspects of nature's annual migration and phenology patterns, including the chronicling of the two Whooping Crane migrations.

With continuing research efforts and public awareness campaigns, it is hoped that the eastern and western populations of Whooping Cranes will grow to rival the size of the flocks that once flew across the skies of North America.