New wild whooping crane chicks have hatched this month at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin. Four new chicks from nesting pairs in the Eastern Migratory Population of whooping cranes have been discovered during aerial surveys of known nests undertaken by officials of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. The newest chick was reported hatched May 16. Active nests, being incubated by crane pairs, continue to be monitored.
News of the very first chick hatched in the wild this breeding season was greeted with great excitement. Its mother, born in 2006, was also wild-born - the first wild-born chick to be hatched in Wisconsin in more than a century, according to an In the Field report posted May 10, by Operation Migration. In the Field is a blog of whooping crane news, and Operation Migration is one of the nine founding members of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership.
Unfortunately, the new chick, hatched May 9, has not been seen on further monitoring checks and biologists at the refuge fear it may have been lost to a predator. In spite of the disappointment of this possible loss, Doug Staller, manager of Necedah NWR, called "this first successful nesting and hatching of a wild-born chick, from a wild-born parent" an encouraging development for the WCEP, as it works toward the ultimate goal of a self-sustaining population of whooping cranes in eastern North America.
Of the nests still being incubated, Eva Szyszykoski, Field Tracking Manager for WCEP, added that one of them belongs to very young birds, and production of a viable egg is questionable. "We didn't really expect them to nest, however they started incubating consistently a couple of weeks ago and we will have to see what happens with them," she said, via email.
Reintroduced Migratory Whooping Crane Flock Has Grown from Captive-Bred Chicks
The uncertainties of crane reproduction and the precarious existence of wild-born chicks are just two of countless obstacles that the members of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership have confronted. The WCEP has been working since 2001 to establish the new migrating flock of whooping cranes. Its member groups include both private and public organizations, such as Operation Migration, which trains crane chicks to follow ultralight aircraft. Two other partners, the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI, and the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, are both sources of the captive-bred chicks the project depends on. The program has succeeded in growing the flock from a mere handful of birds in the early years to just over 100 today.
As young whooping cranes learn the migration route from Wisconsin to Florida, either by following ultralight aircraft, or (since 2005) by flying with older whooping cranes, the growth of the flock has been steady most years, but setbacks have occurred. A number of birds were easily lost in the first year to bobcat predators shortly after the cranes had successfully completed their first migration to Florida. In February 2007, all but one of the young cranes trained in 2006 were lost in a single, violent storm.
All this information, and much more, is available online to people who become fascinated by the story of the whooping crane, and eager to know more. In addition to the links cited above the Journey North website, independent of the WCEP, is maintained by the Annenberg Learner network, and is a rich source of whooping crane data. Its "bio pages" - life histories of every bird that has been in the project - is an exceptional, one-of-a-kind resource.
As New Migrating Flock Grows, More Wild-born Chicks Are the Next Goal
Because the existence of the whooping crane species is challenged, and its future uncertain, the hatching of any whooping crane in the wild is big news for crane enthusiasts everywhere. But the "back story" attached to 2011's first hatched chick, makes its arrival an even bigger story.
This chick, even though it may not have survived, will be forever known and recorded in extensive documentation, as W1-11 - wild-born chick, number 1, in 2011. As noted above, the mother of this little statistic is W1-06 (wild-born, number 1, 2006), and the first wild-born chick hatched into the reintroduced Eastern Migratory Population. The fact that she has thrived and matured, and has now nested and produced a chick of her own, is exactly the kind of good news hoped for by all involved in the WCEP.
Giving the story added importance for the WCEP partners, is the fact that the deceased mother of W1-06, and crane grandmother of W1-11, was a captive-bred, ultralight-trained whooping crane that was shot in an act of vandalism in December of 2009, in Indiana.
The Reasons for Reintroducing Whooping Cranes into the Eastern United States
The goal of establishing a new flock of whooping cranes migrating between Wisconsin and Florida, was developed by the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team, comprised of wildlife experts from both Canada and the U.S., in response to the near-extinction of the whooping crane. There is only one naturally-occuring flock of these North American birds in the wild, and the establishment of additional populations was deemed a necessary safeguard against extinction.
In the midst of the last century, the one wild flock, which migrates between northern Canada and the Texas Gulf Coast, had declined to just 15 survivors. It has slowly recovered, and today is reporting a population of 279. According to the Journey North website, the long term recovery goal for the species is a self-sustaining population of a minimum of 1,000 whooping cranes in all of North America by the year 2035.
Although there are 15 species of cranes in existence throughout the world, only the Whooping Crane and the once-endangered, but now-stable Sandhill Crane are native to North America.
Kathlin F. Sickel - Reading and writing in print and online. So much to uncover and report. Join me; let's see what we can discover.
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