WHOOPING CRANES ARE A POSITIVE SIGN FOR ALL WILDLIFE

by Whit Gibbons

January 28, 2007

According to National Public Radio (NPR) last week, "Record numbers of whooping cranes have returned to the Texas coast for the winter." NPR noted that "237 birds made the trek to Texas from Canada." In the summer this main flock of the cranes will return to Canada for nesting.

One of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) success stories, for those interested in preserving native wildlife, has been the whooping crane. Only 15 whooping cranes were left in the world when the United States entered World War II in 1941. When the San Antonio Zoo received its first wild-caught whooping crane in 1956, which was believed to be one of only 16 remaining, it became the only U.S. zoo involved in captive breeding. The zoo still has a small number of the magnificent birds on display.

In 1967 a captive breeding population, reared from eggs taken from nests in Canada, was established at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. When the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, whooping cranes were near the top of the list. By 1998, about 190 made the 2,600-mile flight from Canada to Texas. So, in less than a decade, 47 more birds have been added to the flock.

Adult whooping cranes are magnificent wading birds. White, with black wing tips, they are the tallest bird in North America. Adults stand up to five feet tall. In flight, with their long necks fully extended, the birds make a long, sonorous sound that can be heard three miles away. As with many other wading birds and waterfowl, whooping cranes spend the winter in aquatic habitats in the South, migrating north in the spring to nest. At their breeding grounds, they engage in dramatic and elaborate courtship dances and rituals before mating.

Whooping cranes once nested as far south as Iowa and Illinois; the last known natural nest in the United States was found in 1889. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1916 made it illegal to hunt cranes, but uncontrolled urban and agricultural development eliminated all U.S. nesting sites. The nesting area of the few remaining birds was discovered almost a half century later, but not in the United States.

In 1922 Canada established Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories, within a few hundred miles of the Arctic Circle. As area bigger than Connecticut was set aside for the purpose of protecting the bison herds that still remained in northern Canada, not to preserve whooping cranes, because no one even knew they were there. In 1954 a helicopter pilot accidentally discovered the last remaining nesting site of the big birds. The wild cranes breed in Canada and spend the winters in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas, an area placed under protection in 1937.

In 1975 the USFWS became involved in a project to increase whooping crane numbers. An experimental wild population was started at Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Idaho. Whooping crane eggs were placed in the nests of sandhill cranes, which are also giant wading birds. The sandhill cranes served as caring, though unsuspecting, foster parents, and the unaware foster fledglings followed the sandhill cranes to New Mexico each winter. More than 80 fledged during the first 15 years, but only a dozen or so survived for various reasons. And, as far as I know, none has yet bred or appears likely to.

Captive breeding programs, experiments with breeding populations in the field, and protection of the natural habitats they require are some conservation approaches applied to whooping cranes. All are being used, with varying degrees of success. Not much else can be done at this point to try to increase the numbers of a slow-breeding species like this. The USFWS projects constitute a lot of effort to save a few birds and ensure their survival. The success with this exceptional bird is admirable and attests to our ability to create successful recovery programs for declining species. To maintain biological diversity, we need to show equal concern for the many other wildlife species that are in trouble. Better yet, let's start protecting the environment now so last-ditch conservation efforts aren't needed.



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