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Whooping Crane recovery program to continue despite loss of birds in FloridaIn shock after the death of 17 penned Whooping Cranes in a storm, conservationists plan to add up to 36 birds to the flock in 2007
Published: February 7, 2007 Read about the Whooping Cranes' summer home, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin.
Feb. 7, 2007, updated Feb. 12 - Struggling to cope with the sudden deaths of 17 young birds, leaders of the effort to establish a migratory flock of endangered Whooping Cranes in the eastern United States this week voiced gratitude for the many expressions of condolence and support they've received and vowed to continue on with the project.
The cranes that died all hatched in 2006. They perished when a powerful storm born in the Gulf of Mexico made landfall directly over Chassahowitzka NWR, their new winter home, early on Feb. 2. Tornadoes then raced across the state, spreading the misery wider. By morning, 20 people were killed, dozens were injured, and 1,500 homes were destroyed or uninhabitable.
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Preliminary necropsy results show that the birds likely drowned.
The so-called First Family -- the first adult pair of Whooping Cranes to hatch and raise a chick -- was not in the path of the deadly storm. All three birds are doing fine. The family is the subject of an eight-page feature article in our April 2007 issue.
"We've received a tremendous outpouring of support," says Joe Duff, co-founder of Operation Migration, the group that teaches the birds to migrate. "People know these are special birds. They appreciate the amount of work that goes into training them and caring for them." |
17 gone
Hatched in captivity last spring and trained with ultralights from summer to early fall, the cranes arrived at a temporary pen site in central Florida on Dec. 19. Their trip south had taken 76 days.
Pilots led them to a permanent four-acre pen at Chassahowitzka on Jan. 11 and 12. The birds could roam freely during the day but were kept in an adjacent pen covered with a net each night, including the night of the tornadoes. |
The storm struck on the final day of the winter meetings of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership in Lafayette, La. John Christian, co-chair of the partnership and assistant regional director of the migratory bird program of the USFWS, was in the airport when his cell phone rang.
"I got the call at 3:30, and the birds had just been found at 2:30," he says. "All the birds were dead. What a shock. We had had such a great meeting. We were up to 81 birds, the flock was more genetically viable, so everything was going very well.
"Everyone on the team is heartbroken," he added. "The birds become like our children. We try to maintain an appropriate biological distance, but that's not always possible when you work with them every day."
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One survivor
Christian couldn't know at the time, of course, that crane No. 15-06, one of the 18, was still alive. Its survival wasn't even suspected until Saturday, Feb. 3, when team members realized that its carcass was not among those pulled from the mud inside the top-netted pen.
Tally Love, a tracking intern for the International Crane Foundation, spotted the crane, alive, during an aerial survey the following day. The bird, a male, was foraging with two Sandhill Cranes in Citrus County, about 25 miles northeast of the refuge.
Because he flew away from the storm, found not only good habitat but other cranes, and did not appear to be injured, team members figure he stands a good chance of surviving in the wild. "If all goes well and he avoids Florida's bobcats," says Christian, "when spring comes, 15-06 should begin migration with the white [adult] birds."
[UPDATE, FEB. 12: Trackers captured 15-06 and have moved him to a pen for his safety. He had roosted overnight on dry land, which left him vulnerable to predators.]
So the flock that had 81 birds at the beginning of the month now numbers 63. (It had already been a grim winter before the storm hit. One crane died after it collided with a power line, another died due to unknown causes, and a third, found just this week, is thought to be a victim of bobcat predation.) Most are in Florida, 11 are spread out across four other states, and the locations of seven others are unknown.
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The road ahead
It appears that the five facilities that house the continent's 34 captive breeding pairs of Whooping Cranes will be busy in the months to come.
A goal will be to create a genetic mix as strong as that represented in the cranes that were lost. "We had really good genetics," says Tom Stehn, Whooping Crane coordinator for the USFWS. "We worked really hard to do that."
In a management technique begun just last year, biologists bred cranes that were under-represented in the wild and prevented the breeding of birds that were over-represented. Stehn explained that the steps were intended to reduce the chances that sibling pairs (offspring hatched in different years but from the same parents) would form in the wild.
"The good news is that we can do it again," he says. The captive birds that produced the 2006 chicks will be bred again this spring and should produce a similarly healthy mix of new chicks.
According to Christian, WCEP has requested 20-24 eggs for the ultralight-led project and another 10-12 for direct autumn release. DAR birds do not follow ultralights; rather, they learn the migration route from adult cranes.
No one can say how many eggs will actually be laid, of course, but WCEP's request is for a total of 30-36 cranes, far more than in past flocks. Nineteen of the 20 birds that began the 2005 ultralight-led journey completed the trip to Florida -- the largest group ever. And in both 2005 and 2006, four birds were released through the DAR method. |
 This map shows areas in central Florida most affected by the storms.
"If for some reason we can't get them all to follow the ultralights, we could move a couple over to the DAR program," he added.
A bigger challenge, he predicts, will come as the young birds hatch in captivity this spring. To train a bird to accept an ultralight, a strict protocol must be followed -- beginning even when the chick is still in the egg. From a few days after hatching at the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland until the birds are shipped to Necedah at an average of 47 days old, costumed workers must train each chick for approximately 20 minutes a day.
"The birds will not socialize until they're at least a month old," he says, "so they have to be trained individually. And to send us 24 birds, you have to have probably 30 to start with. So 30 birds times 20 minutes a day adds up to a lot of work."
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A hard look back
WCEP leaders will no doubt go through a grieving process, Christian says, but he expects the group to turn its attention soon to learning from the tragedy. "We will take a hard look at what happened out there. It will be a thorough, introspective review. We have to make sure that something like this never happens again."
He says the team will consider whether a new wintering site is needed for ultralight-led birds. Older birds return to Chassahowitzka each winter in search of food that is provided for the chicks, and their presence forced organizers to protect the chicks in the top-netted enclosure each night. A new location, in theory, would be more difficult for adults to find.
Stehn confirmed that the team would consider other options for wintering sites and noted that Chassahowitzka "logistically is extremely difficult."
Crane caretakers can reach the pen only by airboat, "and then, when it's almost dark, they have to drive the airboat back to the mainland."
Discuss this story in our forum.
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3 ways you can help
Leaders of the Whooping Crane reintroduction effort say making a donation is the best way you can help them.
Operation Migration
The group that flies the ultralights has established the Remembering the Class of 2006 Fund to support its work this year.
International Crane Foundation
Contributions support captive breeding, direct autumn release, and other work. Direct your donation to ICF's North American Programs.
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
The federal government matches contributions dollar for dollar. Direct your donation to the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership.
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If you see a crane in eastern states
If you're lucky enough to see a Whooping Crane in eastern North America do two things:
1. Keep your distance. The birds must be left alone to maintain their wildness.
2. Report your sighting to your state's wildlife or natural resources agency. If you can see the bird's leg bands, record the band colors on each leg and report them.
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