Whooping Crane Recovery

From U.S. Geological Survey (USGS):

Big Bird, are you jealous? Biologists at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, MD reared some whopping whooper chicks in 2016, with the biggest male weighing in at more than 17 pounds. Starting with eggs from wild-nesting Wisconsin whooping cranes and from crane breeding centers, the researchers painstakingly reared more than 30 chicks. It’s part of a long-running effort to ensure the survival of this majestic, critically endangered bird, and establish new populations in key parts of its range.

This week 11 gawky six- to seven-month-old youngsters hopped a private jet to Louisiana piloted by volunteers from the environmental group SouthWings. In an outdoor pen in a marsh near White Lake, they joined 10 other Patuxent Class of 2016 birds that arrived on an earlier flight. Louisiana’s native whooping cranes went extinct by 1950. USGS and Louisiana state biologists have worked since 2011 to re-establish a population there. This spring they hit a happy milestone when a pair of Patuxent-raised whoopers hatched the first whooping crane chick born in the wild in Louisiana since 1939. That chick is now flying free with its parents in the flock these youngsters will join.

In the 1930s fewer than 20 whoopers remained; today there are more than 600. Learn more athttps://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/WhoopingCranes/ Photo (at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center) courtesy of Jane Chandler.

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