Posted on 04/18/2006 5:23:23 PM PDT by SJackson
Whooping cranes return to Wisconsin
NECEDAH, Wis. At least four pairs of whooping cranes have returned to Wisconsin to nest.
The cranes are part of a project to reintroduce the migration of whooping cranes. They're slowly learning to migrate from the south on their own without the use of an ultralight aircraft to guide them.
Necedah Wildlife Refuge manager Larry Wargowsky says so far, 64 birds are migrating on their own because of the program.
Wargowsky says it takes the cranes 60 days to head south, but the return trip takes nine days.
He says it's the first year that a group of cranes learned from older cranes how to migrate without the use of an ultralight.
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Whooping crane pairs nesting at refuge
BETSY BLOOM | La Crosse Tribune
. NECEDAH, Wis. Its not geese that are laying the golden eggs at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge this spring.
At least four pairs of rare whooping cranes are nesting at the refuge, raising the possibility the endangered birds will produce the first chicks hatched in the wild in Wisconsin in more than a century, officials said.
Richard Urbanek of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who is senior biologist for the ongoing whooping crane restoration project, said he suspects a fifth pair is nesting on the refuge as well, and a sixth pair could be in a nearby state wildlife area.
The project, started in 2000, brings young cranes hatched in captivity to Necedah, where they are trained to follow an Operation Migration ultralight plane 1,200 miles to Floridas Gulf coast.
As hoped, most of the 64 birds released through the project have made their way back to Wisconsin in the spring, Urbanek said.
Two of the pairs now on the nest at Necedah did produce one egg each last year but left it unattended long enough it was eaten by predators.
Thats a potential threat this year as well the refuge is full of
raccoons, Urbanek said but the birds seem to have better parenting skills this time.
Theyre sticking really close to the nest and theyre doing everything just about perfect, Urbanek said.
Nesting began last week, so the eggs should hatch in early May.
The tall, white cranes only produce one to two eggs in a season. Their reproduction is very slow, Urbanek said.
All of the nesting females are 4 years old, and were released in the projects second year, while the males range in age from 5 to 3. Whooping cranes take four to seven years to mature enough for breeding, and often will pair for a couple years before nesting, said Larry Wargowsky, refuge manager.
The prospect of having home-grown chicks at the refuge doesnt mean another batch of captive-hatched young cranes wont be brought in this year, Urbanek said.
But the number of young birds the refuge receives this year could be lower, due to a late snowstorm that collapsed breeding pens at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., which has provided most of the projects cranes.
The project also will repeat its direct autumn release program, in which fledgling cranes from the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis., were set loose at the refuge in October in hopes they would follow the older birds on migration to Florida. Last year, four direct-release cranes successfully arrived on their own at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in west-central Florida.
The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership project is trying to establish a migrating flock of whooping cranes east of the Mississippi River. The goal is to have at least 25 breeding pairs in the eastern United States by 2020.
Nearly extinct in 1941, whooping cranes had a total population of 453 in March 2005, with about 275 in the wild. The only other migratory flock of this strictly North American species, the tallest bird on the continent, nests in western Canada and winters on the Texas Gulf Coast.
For more information, visit www.bringbackthecranes. org or www.operationmigration.org.
This is so homophobic I'm speechless. No mention of diversity among the whooping cranes, or what happens to those cranes involved in "alternative" lifestyles. They are mating these pairs of cranes, and raising the young??? I just don't understand the world of nature.
It's interesting that they have to be tricked into leaving Wisconsin for Florida, by ultralight and human "parents", but are happy to return all on their own.
Cranes near final destination [Whoopers to Florida for the winter]
See post 3, they're trained to think they're airplanes.
Save the cranes!
Hope they don't bring bird flu.
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