Restoring the Whooping Crane
by Sue Leaf

Elegant in flight and statuesque on land, the Whooping Crane is North America’s largest bird, and one of its rarest. It was never common. In the mid-1800s, its population was no more than 1500 birds. By 1949, its numbers were down to 15, a single migratory flock that bred in northern Canada and wintered on the coast of Texas.

The decline is attributed to two factors: habitat loss and unregulated hunting. Whoopers require marshy expanses in which to nest and forage. These were drained for agriculture. Then, as the birds became rare, hunters and hobbyists collected eggs and specimens for posterity.

Efforts to rescue cranes from extinction began in 1967 with a captive breeding program. In the past 20 years, restoration has come close to home, as the International Crane Foundation of Baraboo, Wisconsin and the nearby Necedah National Wildlife Refuge of central Wisconsin participate in a large, complex project with many partners in an effort to secure the bird’s future.

This fall, my husband and I accompanied staff and board members of Audubon Minnesota on a trip led by U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists to learn firsthand about Whooping Crane restoration. We saw how eggs are incubated, sometimes by sandhill crane foster parents, how chicks are raised in isolation from humans (to prevent imprinting) and how costumed biologists train them to follow “mother” using hand puppets resembling crane heads. Later, “mother” crawls into an ultralight airplane and the chicks learn to first run, then fly behind the aircraft.

We learned how, over the summer months, the chicks build up strength through short training flights until they are sufficiently conditioned to make the migration to Florida. And we watched, on a perfectly still, frosty morning, as 21 young cranes flew behind the ultralight, in the final weeks of preparation before taking off for points south.

This elaborate training is necessary in establishing a migratory flock of Whooping Cranes in Wisconsin, because young cranes learn the migration route from their parents—and Whooping Cranes had died out in Wisconsin.

Necedah NWR has been training Whooping Cranes to migrate since 2001. These early trainees have returned and now, it is hoped, are ready to mate and produce young. Some have wandered off course on the return trip and several have already shown up in Minnesota. The Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge hosted one whooper two summers ago, and three of Necedah’s cranes made a trip to southeastern Morrison County this summer.

Whooping Cranes resemble sandhills in flight, but are larger and all white with black wingtips. They fly with a characteristic crane “rattle” call. But if they are flying high, they may be confused with pelicans, which are also large and white with black wing-tips.

The care required to bring this beautiful bird back from the brink of extinction illustrates the larger point that it is so much easier and less costly to maintain healthy populations than it is to restored those that have reached the danger point.

Sue