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We here in Wisconsin get lots of news on this, since this is where they start their journey.
In addition to the 18 birds reported hear, four more whooping crane chicks born this year successfully migrated with adults, part of an experiment to release the birds to fly with other cranes (rather than leading them by ultralight plane).
And the best news of all: A chick born to parents who were raised and released several years was successfully raised over the summer and also successfully migrated with its parents to FL. That's the first wild-born whooping crane to make the migration in the eastern US in more than a hundred years.
The total numbers are also higher now -- more than 200 in the main wild flock that goes from Canada to the gulf coast, more than a hundred others in the experimental flocks, and maybe 200 more in captivity.
by strobusguy on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 02:11:18 PM PDT
So there really could be 400 to 500 whoopers out there.
by Anna M on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 02:15:49 PM PDT
[ Parent ]
But again, about a quarter of them are in captivity (that's where the eggs that make the chicks that make the migration come from).
You can find a table with this info here here at Operation Migration's website. But it's from last year. I think I heard that the total is over 500 now.
Historically, they had reached their lowest point backin the late 1940s, when there were only 15 or so left in the whole world. It's been a long, slow climb back up ever since. They started the Wisconsin/Florida flock as "insurance," in case the one wild flock were to be struck by disease, or a natural disaster, or harm to its sensitive and vulnerable winter habitat on the gulf coast.
The whooping crane is the rarest of the 15 species of cranes, but many of the others are threatened as well. The website of the International Crane Foundation, which is also based here in Wisconsin, has lots of great information. Great place to visit if you're visiting Wisconsin anytime.
by strobusguy on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 02:31:16 PM PDT
THe IUCN listing is probably a few years old. But many of them are in zoos. Perhaps those are the ones that are old or injured. I wonder how the ones in the New Orleans Zoo fared through the hurricane.
by Anna M on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 02:43:41 PM PDT
I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land. -- Mark Twain
by Meteor Blades on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 04:56:32 PM PDT
This website has a running tally of the whooper population. The original flock had a bumper crop of chicks, bringing the total species population over 500:
Wood Buffalo NP (Alberta/NWT) / Aransas NWR (TX) flock: 237 Florida nonmigratory flock: 53 Wisconsin / Florida flock: 83 Total wild 373 birds In captivity 145 Grand total 518
Not bad for a species that was down to just 21 birds for a couple years in the 1950's.
You have the power to change America. Yes. We. Can.
by CA Pol Junkie on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 03:31:17 PM PDT
Not only have the whooping cranes recovered since the 1940s, but so have their common cousins the sandhill cranes. Back then, the best estimate had only a few dozen in the whole midwest. They were driven down by the loss of wetlands and prairie, market hunting, egg collecting. But they are a more adaptable species, and have recovered to the point that there are more than 12,000 in the midwest now.
by strobusguy on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 02:41:52 PM PDT
are thinking about starting a similar program to help the Siberian crane.
by Anna M on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 02:59:52 PM PDT
It does not take many words to tell the truth. - Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
by Gabriele Droz on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 03:17:46 PM PDT
had done the Whoopee call first. Sorry. But then again - NOT.
by Gabriele Droz on Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 03:19:18 PM PDT
wide narrow
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