Posted on 02/03/2007 6:05:08 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
Conservationists are considering the reintroduction of the endangered whooping crane to Louisiana, which hosted one of the few remaining colonies of the birds in the 1930s.The Whooping Crane Conservation Association and the Whooping Crane Recovery Team — a group of Canadian and U.S. crane experts — will meet in Lafayette next week to explore the possibility of starting a new colony of one the world’s rarest birds.
“It’s like bringing the dinosaurs back,” said Mary Lynch Courville, secretary of the Whooping Crane Conservation Association.
Her father, John J. Lynch, documented the last known instance of whooping cranes breeding in the wild in the U.S. — 1939 at White Lake, a pristine marsh in Vermilion Parish that is now a state-owned conservation area.
Associated Press photo by RON HEFLINA whooping crane searches for food at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
near Rockport, Texas, in January 2006.
Between meetings next week, the crane recovery groups are scheduled to tour both White Lake and Marsh Island, a state wildlife management area in Vermilion Bay.
Courville is pushing for consideration of White Lake, where her father, a prominent naturalist, worked to document and save the birds.
“This is an opportunity to show that we can re-create history,” she said Friday during a presentation to the White Lake Property Advisory Board.
The number of whooping cranes in the U.S. had dwindled to about 20 birds in Texas by mid-20th century — the victims of habitat loss and hunters.
Preservation efforts have revived the migrating colony that winters in Texas to about 230, and researchers have been working about six years to create a migrating flock in Florida.
The Florida project has garnered much media attention because the birds are led south from Wisconsin by ultra-light aircraft in an effort to teach migration patterns.
Louisiana was eyed in the 1990s for the re-introduction program, but the project ultimately landed in Florida because support was greater there at the time, Courville said.
She said a successful re-introduction of whooping cranes could make White Lake a national draw for birdwatchers hoping for a rare glimpse of an endangered species in the wild.
“People want to see these cranes,” she said.
White Lake is renowned for waterfowl hunting, but Courville said the cranes will not be in danger there because it is unlikely the giant birds would be mistaken for a duck or a goose.
Mature whooping cranes stand about 5 feet high and have a wing span of 7 feet.
“It’s like a 747 compared to a helicopter,” Courville said.
She said that whooping cranes coexist with hunters at the refuges in Florida and Texas.
Any decision to re-introduce whooping cranes to Louisiana would be made after careful studies of food supplies and habitat, said Phil Bowman, with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Fur and Refuge Division.
“It is a protracted process, and it is very structured,” Bowman told the White Lake board. “This is something that is not going to happen next year.”
While talk is beginning for the reintroduction of whooping cranes, one has been spotted recently in south Louisiana, Bowman said.
He said the bird, apparently separated from the Florida or Texas group, was last seen with a flock of sandhill cranes.
Wildlife officials are not releasing the location for fear of attracting too many curious birdwatchers.
Some of the meetings next week on whooping cranes will be open to the public.
For more information, visit http://www.whoopingcrane.com and click on “current events.”
Fla. storms killed all 18 whooping cranes led south by ultralight
Jacksonville.com ^ | 2-3-07 | JAMES A. CARLSON
Posted on 02/03/2007 5:32:31 PM CST by SJackson
I heard that today; that is just so sad, isn't it?
There is a lesson here...
Well, I'm not familiar with Florida but it seems like they get whalloped too often by bad storms. We just have a malaise for a few months out of the year and a killer storm every 30 years.
Ooohh, I hadn't heard that about the cranes in Florida. Sad. :(
They had hunting pressure combined with a very low rate of reproduction.
GEEZ, HUNTING PRESSURE?? What the h**l you talking about Paleo?? Well, there was one Bubba in Central Texas (I won't name the town, they're nice folks) that blasted one and then stomped it in the mud--didn't work; I was passing through his home town THE SAME DAY HE WAS ARRESTED and the news was spreading like wildfire. What a way to become known!
Anyway, the sacred bird has been on the Endangered List for decades for pete's sake. Yeah, low rate of reproduction perhaps. Anyway, they have International mega-protection on all levels, and what's this ultralight playing lead crane all about?
I'm not talking about hunting pressure recently. I'm talking about prior to the 1930's and especially the 19'th century that caused them to nearly go extinct. When the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge was established in the 1930's, there were only 13 Whooping Cranes left. There were 216 Whooping Cranes that nested in Texas during the winter of 2004-2005. It's taken a long time to build up the population. They are long lived birds and have a low rate of reproduction. They normally lay two eggs and end up raising one chick per year.
The ultralight was used to get a flock of nursury raised Whooping Cranes to follow it to a new nesting site in Florida instead of the Aransas refuge in Texas.
Correct, I'm familiar with the history of these birds, your "hunting" comment made me wonder if you were thinking of the Whooping Crane or possibly the Sandhill Crane which does have a season. I had a person once all in an uproar about hunting "whoopers" when in fact he was speaking of sandhills, he thought both were one in the same!
Hunting pressure? Who hunted Whooping Cranes? I am a native of the Texas Gulf Coast, 66 years old and I never heard of anyone hunting them? They have been protected all my life.
In the 19'th century they weren't protected. Read post #9. It's taken about 70 years to build their population to 216 from just 13.
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