The Conservation of the Whooping Crane

"The quality of cranes lies...as yet beyond the reach of words" - Aldo Leopold

The majestic Whooping Crane in flight

The story of the Whooping Crane (Grus americana) is a legend in the making.  Scientists estimate that the Whooping Crane had a small population of between 10,000-20,000 individuals before the arrival of Europeans.  Habitat loss and hunting quickly took a toll on this relatively rare Gruiform, and by 1860 there were only about 1400 birds left in the wild.  By 1941, they were on the brink of extinction, with only 21 wild birds and 2 captives left.

Fortunately, the birds that were left spent both winters and summers in protected wildlife preserves; summers  in Wood Buffalo National park in Canada, and winters in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.  Conservationists recognized the threat to the Whooping Crane and began agitating for governmental protection.  Governments and conservation organizations both at the summer and winter ground of the crane and the in-between stops began taking measures to protect the birds and encourage them to breed, and the species was eventually declared endangered.  Efforts to protect the crane saw a slow rise in numbers, to about 57 Whooping Cranes in 1970 and up to between 450-600 birds today.  While this bird has taken a few steps back from the abyss of oblivion, it still is critically endangered.

Scientists recognize that basing all conservation efforts on one population of Whooping Cranes is risky, and so they have taken bold steps to create other populations of the bird.  Captive breeding programs began increasing the numbers of these birds, but this presented a problem since none of the captives understood the methods and timing of migration.  Scientists tried to establish a population in Idaho, but it crashed.  They establishes a resident population in Florida as well, but this population does not migrate.  Crane researchers believed that they could adopt out Whooping Crane chicks to Sandhill Crane parents, who could teach the babies to migrate.  They did indeed teach them to migrate, but since the Whooping Cranes imprinted on the Sandhill Cranes, they would not breed with other Whooping Cranes.

A researcher dressed as an adult Whooping Crane to ensure the chick does not imprint on humans

A Whooping Crane chick being cared for by its parents

Then came a brilliant idea.  The International Whooping Crane Recovery Team suggested using an ultralight aircraft to teach the captive-bred chicks to migrate.  They established a population in Florida, and as summer approached, led up the ultralight, which the chicks had been flying around with locally, and flew to Wisconsin.  This effort proved successful, and there is now a second healthy population of Whooping Cranes that migrates annually between Florida and Wisconsin.  However, the majority of the individuals are still in the Aransas-Wood Buffalo population, and threats such as increasing habitat loss, illegal hunting, low genetic diversity, and natural disasters still menace this magnificent bird.  While the story of the Whooping Crane has been successful thus far, it will take generations of sustained effort to make sure that this species is  preserved in perpetuity.

Whooping Cranes following an ultralight

A scientist in the ultralight donning the crane suit to allow the chicks to believe that the ultralight is one of their own

Whooping Cranes flying in formation with the ultralight in the lead

Sources:

International Crane Foundation: http://www.savingcranes.org/whooping-crane.html
National Wildlife Foundation: http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Birds/Whooping-Crane.aspx
US Fish and Wildlife Service: http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=B003