What's New International Crane Foundation

Nests & Eggs!

admin — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:00:17 +0000

ICF’s captive Whooping Cranes are laying eggs and the wild Whooping Cranes are nesting in Wisconsin. Breeding season is here!

A tradition at ICF is to follow our “Egg Score Card,” which tracks the Whooping Crane eggs from our captive flock and wild nests in Wisconsin. We’ll be posting updates to our score card on our website and Facebook, so check back often in the coming weeks to view our progress.

Save the date! Join us for our next Crane Chick Cam live chat on Tuesday, May 28th from 11:30 – 12:00 CDT. We will meet ICF Senior Aviculturist and Chick Rearing Supervisor Marianne Wellington and learn how we care for our chicks (our cam will be live if we have newly hatched chicks that are ready for their premiere!)

Request an email reminder and view our full chat schedule.

Whooping Crane eggs laid at ICF (5/24/13)

Highlight: We’ve had two new females begin laying eggs this year! McGee, a eight year-old female hatched at ICF, laid her first egg 5/2 (read the story), and seven year-old Sage laid her first egg 5/8. Sage arrived at ICF in 2010 from the Calgary Zoo.

Total laid: 33

Fertile: 13 (9 remaining at ICF; 1 embryo died)*

Infertile: 6

Broken: 3

Unknown (too young or too dark to determine fertility): 11

Additional eggs removed from wild nests in Wisconsin at ICF: 4 fertile/1 hatched (view photos of our first hatch on May 21st)!

*to date 3 fertile eggs from ICF’s flock shipped to Patuxent Wildlife Research Center for hatching; an additional 12 eggs recovered from wild nests in Wisconsin have also been shipped from ICF to Patuxent

Wild Whooping Crane nests in Wisconsin (5/24/13): 1 active nest with 2 chicks! (read about the first hatch and the nesting success study of this population)

Visit ICF on Facebook for updates on the 2013 Whooping Crane breeding season.

Wild Whooping Crane Chick Hatches in Central Wisconsin

admin — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:51:41 +0000

Media Contact: Joan Garland, ICF Outreach Coordinator, 608-381-1262

Update May 24th: 1+1=2! Eva confirmed yesterday that the pair has twins! View a photo of the family

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP) is celebrating another success in its efforts to reintroduce a wild migratory Whooping Crane population in eastern North America. A Whooping Crane chick hatched yesterday in Marathon County, Wis.

The chick, #W1-13 (W = wild hatched), is the offspring of the Whooping Crane pair consisting of a female #5-10 and male #28-08 from the ultralight-guided crane Classes of 2010 and 2008.

The pair nested in 2012 in Marathon County, Wis., however, after incubating past the anticipated hatch date, it was determined that their single egg was infertile. This was likely because the female was only two years old and had not yet reached breeding maturity.

This spring they nested again – this time producing two eggs – one of which hatched on May 21. WCEP is hopeful the second egg will hatch very soon.

“After losing 19 of 20 nests earlier this month, I was able to confirm yesterday that our single remaining nest has at least one chick,” said Eva Szyszkoski, Tracking Field Manager for WCEP and the International Crane Foundation. “During my morning survey flight on May 21, one crane was sitting on the nest in a brooding posture while the other preened nearby. Later that afternoon, one crane was still brooding while the other was off foraging in the wetland to the southeast of the nest. As the plane circled, I was able to get a visual on the tiny chick before it ducked back under the adult. The adult cranes produced two eggs this year, so hopefully we will have a little #W2-13 shortly.”

Thanks to the efforts of WCEP, there are now 106 Whooping Cranes in the eastern migratory population. In addition to #5-10 and #28-08, at least three pairs are currently constructing nest platforms for what WCEP hopes will be re-nest attempts following the early May abandonment event in the core nesting area.

Including #W1-13, twenty-five chicks have hatched in this population since 2006. Five of them have fledged and joined the wild population (read our update on the nesting success study of this population).

Whooping Cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 600 birds in existence, approximately 445 of them in the wild. Aside from the 106 WCEP birds, the only other migratory population of Whooping Cranes nests at Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta, Canada and winters at Aransas NWR on the Texas Coast. A non-migratory flock of approximately 19 birds lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee region, and an additional 25 non-migratory cranes live in southern Louisiana.

WCEP asks anyone who encounters a Whooping Crane in the wild to please give them the respect and distance they need. Do not approach birds on foot within 200 yards; remain in your vehicle; do not approach in a vehicle any closer than 100 yards. Also, please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the birds can hear you. Finally, do not trespass on private property in an attempt to view or photograph whooping cranes.

Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership founding members are the International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration, Inc., Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team.

Many other flyway states, provinces, private individuals and conservation groups have joined forces with and support WCEP by donating resources, funding and personnel. More than 60 percent of the project’s budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, public donations and corporate sponsors.

Follow ICF’s Whooping Crane updates on Facebook and learn more about ICF’s commitment to the endangered Whooping Crane.

Hatching in May 2013! Tune in to ICF’s live Crane Chick Cam to view our Whooping Crane chicks as they are raised for reintroduction.

Share this video with your friends and help us spread the word that disturbing, harassing or killing Whooping Cranes is a crime.

Report a Whooping Crane sighting

Make a gift to support Whooping Crane conservation.

ICF Launches National Whooping Crane Environmental Ed Program

admin — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:03:24 +0000

By Joan Garland, ICF Outreach Coordinator

ICF recently launched an initiative to develop a National Whooping Crane Environmental Education program. This program, aimed at 4th – 8th grade students, teachers, families, and the general public, will involve interactive multi-media tools to engage people in Whooping Crane conservation. We started this work in Texas through a partnership with Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies.

A team of Texas teachers helped us to develop and pilot the first part of this national program, Estuaries in the Balance, which focuses on the estuary ecosystem in the Coastal Bend of south Texas where the Whooping Cranes winter. We will develop and test similar programs with educators in the other two Whooping Crane populations—the reintroduced eastern migratory population and the non-migratory population introduced in Louisiana.

To facilitate information-sharing with our Texas teachers and educators in Louisiana, ICF launched an educator-exchange program and teacher training workshop this past February (left). This program was sponsored by ICF, the Harte Research Institute, and Texas-based Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program. Eight Coastal Bend educators visited the Whooping Crane reintroduction site at White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in southern Louisiana and met with education staff from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to learn about their Whooping Crane environmental education programming and share environmental education teaching tools and techniques.

We hope to host the Louisiana education staff and K-12 educators in the Texas Coastal Bend this winter as we further develop the National Whooping Crane Environmental Education program. Education that builds awareness and enthusiasm to protect Whooping Cranes is the key to protecting one of North America’s most endangered birds.

Attention Teachers! While the Estuaries in the Balance program’s focus is on the Texas Coastal Bend, the program provides a wealth of information on Whooping Cranes and coastal wetlands that can be adapted for your classroom. For additional information on involving your students or opportunities for teacher workshops, please contact Joan Garland at 608-381-1262.

The Texas educators visit the Whooping Crane pen site viewing blinds at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in southern Louisiana (top) and view released Whooping Cranes in the wild with staff from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

You’re Invited to An Evening with the Cranes 2013

admin — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:40 +0000

Photos by Christina Beam
& Deb Johnson

When: Saturday, June 22, 2013 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm (Add to Calendar)

Tickets: $50 ICF member & $60 non-member

*When registering, please select the PayPal option to pay by credit card

Join the International Crane Foundation (ICF) for our fourth annual Evening with the Cranes and experience great food from local restaurants, including Marley’s, Del Bar, Springbrook Sports Bar and Grill, The Cheese Factory and Little Village Café, craft beer from Lake Huron Brewing Company, local wine bar Con Amici’s favorite wines, live music and great company. You’ll also meet ICF Co-founder Dr. George Archibald, ICF staff and, of course, the cranes of the world at our beautiful headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Thank you for supporting ICF and our work to conserve the world’s cranes and their wetland and grassland homes. We look forward to seeing you on June 22, 2013!

Sincerely,
ICF Event Staff
International Crane Foundation
608-356-9462 ext. 101

Event sponsors:

Teel Plastics, Inc.

Partnership Study on Nesting Success of Eastern Migratory Whooping Cranes

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:43:29 +0000

Contacts: Joan Garland, Outreach Coordinator, 608-381-1262

Black flies may be responsible for a high number of Whooping Cranes abandoning their nests in the core reintroduction area in central Wisconsin. To test this hypothesis, the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), the coalition of public and private groups that is reintroducing Whooping Cranes to eastern North America, has been conducting a multi-year study to examine the causes of nest abandonment.

The specific goal of this study is to temporarily remove target species of black flies from the environment and examine Whooping Crane nest success as a result. Other factors that may relate to reproductive success are also being examined, including predation, food availability, and age/nesting experience of the birds in the population.

In spring 2011 and 2012, WCEP biologists conducted a two-year black fly suppression treatment to evaluate the role that black flies play in Whooping Crane nest abandonments. Two rivers near Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) that were known to have significant populations of breeding black flies were treated with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti), a naturally occurring soil bacterium used as an alternative to chemical pesticides to control insects. Bti is the most common, environmentally safe way to reduce adult black fly numbers.

Follow-up assessments found that the treatments during the two-year study significantly reduced black fly numbers during the Whooping Crane nesting season (view our spring 2012 update on this research). This spring, no Bti treatment was applied, allowing researchers to differentiate between the increasing experience of the nesting birds at Necedah NWR and the effect of black flies.

Researchers use traps baited with dry ice to monitor the abundance of black flies and other biting insects throughout the nesting area in central Wisconsin (the CO2 in the dry ice attracts the insects). Hillary Thompson, ICF Field Ecology Intern Manager, is shown hanging a bag of dry ice on a trap at Necedah NWR.

Twenty Whooping Crane pairs have initiated nests this spring so far. Seventeen of those nests were abandoned during a four-day period, from May 4-7. Nineteen eggs were collected from the abandoned nests. At the time of egg collection, dense clouds of black flies were observed at the nests. Several of the collected eggs have been determined to be fertile and are currently being incubated at the International Crane Foundation. They will be used in Whooping Crane reintroduction efforts.

“This study is critical to guide future decisions for how to manage Whooping Cranes that currently nest within the area affected by black flies, as well as where else we can work to re-establish Whooping Cranes in Wisconsin and in the Upper Midwest,” said Jeb Barzen, Director of Field Ecology, International Crane Foundation.

Whooping Cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 600 birds in existence, approximately 445 of them in the wild. Aside from the 106 birds in the WCEP population, the only other migrating population of Whooping Cranes nests at Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta, Canada and winters at Aransas NWR on the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migrating flock of approximately 20 birds lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee region, and an additional 28 non-migratory cranes live in southern Louisiana.

Follow ICF’s Whooping Crane updates on Facebook and learn more about ICF’s commitment to the endangered Whooping Crane.

Hatching in May 2013! Tune in to ICF’s live Crane Chick Cam to view our Whooping Crane chicks as they are raised for reintroduction.

Share this video with your friends and help us spread the word that disturbing, harassing or killing Whooping Cranes is a crime.

Report a Whooping Crane sighting

Make a gift to support Whooping Crane conservation.