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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2010
Contact: Joan Garland, 608-381-1262
For more information on the plan and its partners, visit the WCEP website at: http://www.bringbackthecranes.org.
Wild Whooping Crane Chicks Fledge in Wisconsin
The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP) is celebrating another success in its efforts to reintroduce a wild migratory whooping crane population in eastern North America. 2 wild-hatched whooping crane chicks have recently fledged, or become capable of flight. This is only the 2nd time in over a century that naturally produced whooping cranes have fledged in the wild in the Midwest.
The chicks, #W1-10 and #W3-10 (W = wild hatched) were both observed flying with their parents this weekend. Number W1-10 is located on the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in central Wisconsin, and #W3-10 is on private property in Wood County, Wisconsin.
7 chicks initially hatched this year in the wild, the biggest number to hatch in WCEP plan history. Wild-hatched chicks face a precarious existence in the 1st weeks of their lives, and natural loss of chicks due to predation is common. The survival rate for WCEP with these 2 chicks is within the range of survival rates for wild sandhill crane chicks in south-central Wisconsin currently being studied by the International Crane Foundation.
The 2 wild whooping crane chicks are the result of renesting. Earlier this spring, 9 breeding pairs of whooping cranes built nests and laid eggs, but all 9 pairs abandoned those 1st nests. The nest abandonments earlier this spring are similar to what has been observed in previous years. WCEP is investigating the cause of the abandonments through analysis of data collected throughout the nesting period on crane behavior and black fly abundance and distribution.
In addition to the 2 wild chicks, 13 whooping crane chicks are being conditioned to follow ultralight aircraft by a field team from Operation Migration and the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. This fall, Operation Migration will guide the young cranes on their 1st southward migration from Necedah NWR to Florida, the cranes' winter home.
An additional eleven chicks will be migrating south as part of WCEP's Direct Autumn Release (DAR) project. Biologists from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S.F.W.S. are currently rearing the whooping crane chicks at Necedah NWR. The chicks will be released this fall in the company of older cranes from whom the young birds learn the migration route. This is the 6th year WCEP has used this DAR method.
In the spring and fall, plan staff from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S.F.W.S. track and monitor the released cranes in an effort to learn as much as possible about their unassisted journeys and the habitat choices they make both along the way and on their summering and wintering grounds.
Most of the whooping cranes released in previous years spend the summer in central Wisconsin, where they use areas on or near Necedah NWR, as well as other public and private lands.
Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 550 birds in existence, approximately 400 of them in the wild. Aside from the 96 WCEP birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta, Canada and winters at Aransas NWR on the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migrating flock of approximately 30 birds lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee region.
Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, live and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and aquatic plants. They are distinctive animals, standing 5 feet tall, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.
WCEP asks anyone who encounters a whooping crane in the wild to please give them the respect and distance they need. Do not approach birds on foot within 200 yards; remain in your vehicle; do not approach in a vehicle within 100 yards. Also, please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the birds can hear you. Finally, do not trespass on private property in an attempt to view or photograph whooping cranes.
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership founding members are the International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration, Inc., Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S.F.W.S., the U.S.G.S.'s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team.
Many other flyway states, provinces, private individuals and conservation groups have joined forces with and support WCEP by donating resources, backing and personnel. In excess of 60 percent of the project's budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, public donations and corporate sponsors.
To report whooping crane sightings, visit the WCEP whooping crane observation webpage at: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/whoopingcrane/sightings/sightingform.cfm.
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