16 / OutdoorIllinois October 2009

An inside look at the whooping crane reintroduction

Planes, Cranes and Automo

Story By Ashley SprattPhotos Courtesy Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership

Each fall, a flock of yearlingwhooping cranes departs fromNecedah National WildlifeRefuge in central Wisconsin fora 1,200-mile journey across theskies of Illinois, Kentucky, Ten-

nessee, Alabama and Georgia. Their des-tination: wintering grounds on the GulfCoast of Florida.

So what makes this migration differ-ent from that of any other migratorybird? The answer is twofold: their ultra-light-aircraft chaperones, and their statusas an endangered species.

Since 2001, the Whooping CraneEastern Partnership, an internationalcoalition of public and private agencies

and organizations, has been working toestablish a self-sustaining migratory pop-ulation of whooping cranes in the East-ern United States. Whooping cranes(Grus americana) were on the verge ofextinction due to hunting and habitatloss in the 1940s, and were listed as fed-erally endangered by the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service in 1967.

To meet this population goal, pilotsfrom Operation Migration, a WCEPfounding partner, have been leadingflocks of captive-reared whoopingcranes south behind ultralight aircraft.Having been shown the way once, theyoung birds initiate their return migra-tion in the spring, and in subsequentyears continue to migrate on their own.

In addition to the ultralight-led birds,

biologists from the International CraneFoundation and the USFWS rear whoop-ing cranes at Necedah NWR to bereleased in the company of older cranes.The young birds then learn the migra-tion route from the older ones. DirectAutumn Release method supplementsthe ultralight migrations and has beenused since 2005.

“The state of Illinois is a key partnerin this unprecedented effort to reintro-duce whooping cranes into the easternflyway,” said John Christian of theUSFWS. “We are grateful for the effortsof the Department of Natural Resourcesand our other state colleagues in helpingto make this project a success. Quite sim-ply, we couldn’t do this without them.”

The birds travel about 130 miles

project.

obiles

through southern Wisconsin beforecrossing over the border into Illinois. Lastyear, the migration route took the birdsthrough Winnebago, LaSalle, Livingston,Piatt, Cumberland and Wayne counties.

“We applaud the efforts of the WCEPin bringing these majestic birds backinto wild populations,” said Departmentof Natural Resources Director MarcMiller. “Illinois is fortunate to have theopportunity to see this nearly extinctspecies migrating through the stateagain after nearly a 100-year absence.”

To increase awareness for the projectand highlight the recovery efforts of thepartnership, the public is given opportu-nities along the migration route to seethe ultralights and birds in flight. Thefollowing is an account of one viewer’sflyover experience:

I squinted to make out the trian-gular shape of the lead ultralight.Soon after I spotted the ultra-

light, I saw a thin, white string follow-ing closely behind on one wing. It wasnot until the caravan closed in on theairport could you discern that thestring actually was a flock of cranes.And not just any cranes: endangeredwhooping cranes. The birds glided ina perfect line behind the left wing ofthe aircraft, barely flapping a wing.

The pilot circled the crowd over-head...once...and then a second time.The birds were in view for around10-15 minutes, before the pilot head-ed directly into the sun, and off tothe pen site, where the birds andcrew would rest in preparation forthe next leg of the journey the follow-ing morning.

Operation Migration pilots have flown9,777.2 miles, and while leading the Classof 2009 on this fall’s migration south, willcross over the 10,000th mile somewherein the skies of Illinois. This landmarkmile-marker is the equivalent of flyingalmost halfway around the world.

“The people of Illinois have beenvery supportive of this incrediblewildlife reintroduction project,” said

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At 5 feet tall, the whooping crane

is the tallest bird in North America.

Black wingtips and a mostly white

body are distinguishing features.

Captive-reared whooping cranes begin to

imprint on the sound of an ultralight

aircraft engine before they hatch.

They’ll follow the craft on their first fall

migration and then are on their own.

Cyndi Duda of the USFWS, Chicago FieldOffice. “Every year, Illinois citizens com-mit to be MileMaker sponsors, providingprivate funding to defray the costs ofthis 1,285 mile migration.” The MileMak-er program (visit http://operationmigra-tion.org/mile_makers.htm) provides pri-vate citizens, groups, schools and con-servation enthusiasts a chance tosponsor miles along the migration route.

Along the migration route, theground and flight crew arrange stopoverlocations to refuel their energy for themiles that lay ahead.

Vicky Wegner has been an Illinoisstopover host for the migration crewsince 2002. Her involvement with thewhooping crane project came after meet-ing the Operation Migration Crew atBrookfield Zoo, where she was volunteer-ing part-time during the spring of 2002.

“I’ve worked with bird conservationfor a long time,” Wegner said. “What’sso unique about this project is that it isa result of the combined efforts of somany personalities, an eclectic but

unbelievably dedicated bunch of peo-ple. You would think with a projectlike this you would have all scientistsand biologists, but instead you havestaff and volunteers from many fields—communication, education, marketing,biology and research.”

As a stopover host Wegner cooks,launders, and provides hot showers andother comfort-of-home amenities to theflight and ground crew. Depending onthe length of the migration, the crewcan spend several months away fromtheir family and homes.

“The hospitality offered to us bystopover hosts along the migration isphenomenal,” said Liz Condie, a mem-ber of the Operation Migration groundcrew. “These volunteers provide us witha home away from home, and we cannotthank them enough.”

“It sounds very romantic, because itis a very cutting-edge project, but theaverage person doesn’t really know howmuch planning, strategy, decision-mak-ing skill, and dedication—both physicaland mental—goes into it,” Wegner said.“It can be a grueling few months duringthe winter, especially for the pilots.When they come down from the air,they’re frozen solid.”

The reintroduction of an eastern pop-ulation of migratory whooping cranes

depends upon the use of captive flocksto provide offspring for the ultralight-ledmigration and Direct Autumn Releaseprojects. Captive flocks are maintainedat Patuxent Wildlife Research Center inMaryland, the International Crane Foun-dation in Baraboo, Wis., the CalgaryZoo, the San Antonio Zoo and theAudubon Center for Research of Endan-gered Species at the Audubon SpeciesSurvival Center in New Orleans, La.

Learn more

Whooping Crane Eastern Partnershipfounding members are the Interna-

tional Crane Foundation, OperationMigration, Inc., Wisconsin Departmentof Natural Resources, U.S. Fish andWildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Sur-vey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Centerand National Wildlife Health Center, theNational Fish and Wildlife Foundation,the Natural Resources Foundation ofWisconsin, and the InternationalWhooping Crane Recovery Team.

Many other flyway states, provinces,private individuals and conservationgroups have joined forces with and sup-port WCEP by donating resources, fund-ing and personnel. More than 70 percentof the project’s budget comes from pri-vate sources in the form of grants, publicdonations and corporate sponsors.

A Wisconsin Whooping Crane Man-agement Plan that describes project goalsand management and monitoring strate-gies shared and implemented by the part-ners is online at: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/birds/wcrane/wcraneplan.htm.

For more information on the project,its partners and how you can help, visitthe WCEP Web site at www.bringbackthecranes.org/.

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Strict protocols are followed

to ensure that young whooping

cranes never see a human face,

hand or leg.

The 1,285-mile crane migration

takes several months to complete,

with stopover hosts providing

crew support along the way.

WCEP partners also provide education-al visits to schools along the migrationroute to educate students on the impor-tance of bird conservation, the plight ofthe whooping crane and the mission ofreintroducing whooping cranes into aneastern migratory population.

“Last year the students were reallyexcited when Heather Ray from Opera-tion Migration came by for a visit,” Cam-bier said. “They asked all kinds of ques-tions, like ‘how are the chicks doing?’,‘what is it like to fly?’ which reallyextended their learning. They startedusing the vocabulary, using words like‘imprinting.’ Many teachers that partici-pate in the Journey North program, andare engaged with the WCEP project, saythe issue of conservation fits into allareas of a curriculum, from reading andwriting to science and art.

“It is such a great topic and projectto introduce to students. As educators itis our responsibility to help preparethem to be stewards of the land asadults. Who knows, maybe some ofthem will work for the Fish and WildlifeService or another conservation organi-zation in the future.”

Just hours before an egg hatches,movement can be detected and peepingsounds can be heard from the egg. Forchicks that will be used on the ultralight-led migration, the handlers begin to playsounds of the ultralight aircraft engine tobegin the imprinting process. Once thebirds are transported to Necedah Nation-al Wildlife Refuge in the summer, theybegin training to fly behind the ultralightaircraft. This process involves strict pro-tocol to ensure that the birds do not getaccustomed to humans.

Sara Zimorski, with the InternationalCrane Foundation, a member of theWCEP monitoring team, said: “In fact,the cranes never see a human face, orhand, or leg. That’s because WCEPresearchers, and even OM’s pilots, allwear crane costumes designed to dis-guise the human form when they handleor are around the cranes.”

In the spring and fall, Zimorski andother project staff from the InternationalCrane Foundation and the USFWS trackand monitor previous year’s cohorts ofcranes in an effort to learn as much aspossible about their unassisted journeysand the habitat choices they make bothalong the way and on their summeringand wintering grounds. Most graduatedclasses of whooping cranes spend thesummer in central Wisconsin, where theyuse areas on or near the Necedah NWR,

as well as other public and private lands.“Education is crucial for this project

to succeed,” said Joan Garland, outreachcoordinator with International CraneFoundation. “We cannot reach our goalwithout the support of the public, espe-cially those future generations of conser-vationists that will be caring for ourenvironment and endangered specieslater on.”

Angela Cambier is a third-gradeteacher at West Elementary in Sycamore,about 50 miles west of Chicago. Ateacher for 17 years, Cambier started tofollow the migration three years ago, and,like many teachers at schools along themigration route, began to integrate theproject into her students’ curriculum.

Cambier uses Journey North, an edu-cation program that provides activities,lesson plans and other educational toolsto teachers interested in bringing thestudy of migratory birds and conserva-tion into their classrooms.

“At the start of the year, we build ourbackground knowledge about thewhooping crane as a species, how itbecame endangered, and the mission ofWCEP,” Cambier said. “Once the migra-tion starts, each child is assigned a chickto follow and keeps a journal to trackthe bird’s personality traits and biogra-phy. They will write from different per-spectives: What would it be like to be apilot? What would it be like to be one ofthe birds? We also check in with theflight crew via Operation Migration’sonline Field Journal two to three times aweek to see their location along themigration route.”

To keep the birds as wild as possi-

ble, researchers wear a crane cos-

tume disguise—and never talk—

when working with the birds.

Critical to the whooping crane

reintroduction project is garnering

public support, which starts by

educating tomorrow’s leaders.

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