THE WHOOPING CRANE REPORT: 22 |
Sixteen young-of-the-year whoopers follow an ultra-light aircraft in picture-perfect formation. The view from the pilot's seat as thirteen young cranes learn the migration route from their ultralight "parent". Even when leading the whoopers on the migration, pilots remain in costume. The cranes can hear whooper brood calls coming from a loudspeaker attached to the plain. The brood calls are the same they've been hearing all through their life. The parental sounds encourage them to follow the plane. On November 24, as the juvenile whoopers flew from Meigs Co., Tennesee to Gordon Co., Georgia, two yearling whoopers from last year's migration joined them for about five miles. The two older birds are in this photo, in the lead position off the left wingtip, and in the last position off the left wingtip. They are completely white, while the juvenile birds of this year's migration still have cinnamon colored It takes the hard work of many people to make this project successful. Staff members from Patuxent, the International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration, the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership and other groups and |
Another Successful Migration! On November 30, 2002, 16 young-of-the-year whooping cranes successfully completed a journey of 1202.8 miles that began at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin and ended at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on Florida's central west coast. This is the second year that whoopers have followed ultralight aircraft to learn a new migration route as the first step in establishing a new migratory flock of whoopers. |
Our
partner in the non-migratory flock releases is The Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission: |
Click here to ask questions about Patuxent's whooping crane program. Please check our site on January 30th for a web page update!
Whooping Crane Reports7 | ||||||||||||||||||
22 |
Hatch Day (Click on numbered links to view all other egg (negative numbers) and chick days).
Other Patuxent Crane Information