FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 23, 2009

Contacts: Joan Garland (ICF): 608-381-1262
Dan Peterson (USFWS): 608-565-4412

The first wild whooping cranes of the spring season have returned to their nesting grounds in central Wisconsin.  The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), which is coordinating the effort to return migrating whooping cranes to eastern North America, reports that 11 reintroduced cranes have arrived at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.

According to information received from a refuge data logger, by Tuesday, March 17, six cranes had arrived on the refuge.  On Thursday, a WCEP biologist with the International Crane Foundation confirmed the presence of 11 cranes on the refuge.  

The newly arrived whooping cranes represent the migration “Classes” of 2001 through 2005, which were guided southward by project partner Operation Migration’s ultralight aircraft from the birds’ fledging grounds at Necedah NWR to their winter habitat at Chassahowitzka NWR on the Gulf coast of Florida.  Thanks to the efforts of WCEP, there are now 86 migratory whooping cranes in the wild in eastern North America. 

It's not only an exciting time to see the whooping cranes return, but a relief to know they have made the long journey back safely,” said Necedah NWR manager Larry Wargowsky.

“Thanks to the efforts of WCEP, birders are now seeing whooping cranes in many areas of Wisconsin and the Midwest,” said Signe Holtz, director of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Bureau of Endangered Resources.  “As our crane population matures and grows we’re eagerly watching for pairing and nesting activity, another sign of progress in this project and key to long term success.”

Many of the whooping cranes in the reintroduced eastern migratory population have begun their spring migration.  The first whooping crane to return to Wisconsin this spring, crane #28-05, was observed in Dodge County on March 7.  Whooping crane #28-05 is from WCEP’s Class of 2005 Direct Autumn Release (DAR) program.  Biologists from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rear cranes for this program at Necedah NWR and release them in the company of older cranes from whom the young birds learn the migration route.  This is the fourth year WCEP has used this DAR method.

Whooping cranes that take part in the ultralight and DAR reintroductions are hatched at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., and at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis. Chicks are raised under a strict isolation protocol and to ensure the birds remain wild, handlers adhere to a no-talking rule and wear costumes designed to mask the human form. 

In 2001, Operation Migration’s pilots led the first whooping crane chicks, conditioned to follow their ultralight aircraft surrogates, south from Necedah NWR to Chassahowitzka NWR. Each subsequent year, WCEP biologists and pilots have conditioned and guided additional groups of juvenile cranes to Chassahowitzka NWR. Having been shown the way once, the young birds self initiate their return migration in the spring, and in subsequent years, continue to migrate on their own.

This year, in addition to wintering at Chassahowitzka NWR, half of the ultralight-led Class of 2008 is spending the winter at the St. Marks NWR along Florida’s Gulf Coast. This is the first year the cranes have wintered at two separate locations. The decision to split the cohort comes after the loss in February 2007 of 17 of the 18 Class of 2006 whooping cranes in a severe storm at Chassahowitzka NWR. WCEP hopes the two wintering locations will help reduce the risk of another catastrophic loss. These two groups of birds have not begun their spring migrations--they remain at the Chassahowitzka and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuges.

In the spring and fall, project staff from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service track and monitor the released cranes in an effort to learn as much as possible about their unassisted journeys and the habitat choices they make both along the way and on their summering and wintering grounds.

Most graduated classes of whooping cranes spend the summer in central Wisconsin, where they use areas on or near the Necedah NWR, as well as other public and private lands.

Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 515 birds in existence, approximately 365 of them in the wild. Aside from the 86 birds reintroduced by WCEP, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migrating flock of approximately 30 birds lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee region.

Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, live and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and aquatic plants. They are distinctive animals, standing five feet tall, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.

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 within 100 yards. Please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the birds can hear you.

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.

To report whooping crane sightings, visit the WCEP whooping crane observation webpage at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/whoopingcrane/sightings/sightingform.cfm.

For more information on the project, its partners and how you can help, visit the WCEP website at http://www.bringbackthecranes.org.