News from Scientists at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Monday, June 23, 2003
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Patuxent
SCEP Student Receives Wetland Grant Ms. Amanda Little recently received funding from the Society of Wetland Scientists for her Ph.D. work on wetlands: "Vegetation changes in response to beaver inhabitation and anthropogenic activity in the wetlands of Acadia National Park". Ms. Little is studying for her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is supported by the Survey's Human Resources Initiative Program.
Contact:
Glenn Guntenspergen,
Laurel, Md. 218-720-4307 Bird
Banding Lab’s New Acting Chief Mary
Gustafson, a biologist with the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center's Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) and an international expert
on bird marking and banding, took over as Acting Chief of the BBL
effective June 2. Gustafson
will lead the BBL until a permanent Chief is located via national
search. Dr. Perry will
assume research and management duties after being involved in
administration for 23 years, much of that time as Chief of
Patuxent's Endangered Species Research Branch.
Contact
Mary Gustafson, Laurel,
MD, 301-497-5791 Publication
by Patuxent Scientists:
New Book on Declining Amphibian
Populations Published
The
book "Multiple Stressor Effects in Relation to Declining
Amphibian Populations", edited by Greg Linder (USGS), Sherry
Krest (USFWS), Don Sparling (USGS) and Ed Little (USGS), 2003.
ASTM STP 1443, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA.,
281 pp. has just been
published. This book
contains 16 chapters dealing with toxicity assessment, field and
laboratory studies, and causal analysis for amphibian declines.
The book is intended for a wide audience including
researchers but is particularly appropriate for resource managers
and policy makers who desire to learn more about the stressors
behind the decline of amphibian populations in North America and the
world. Contact
Donald Sparling, Laurel,
MD, 301-497-5723
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Third
Flock of Whooping Crane Chicks Arrives at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge
in Wisconsin to Prepare for Migration A flock of whooping crane chicks
arrived by private airplane at central Wisconsin's Necedah National
Wildlife Refuge June 19. A
field team from Operation Migration, Inc., the International Crane
Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center will spend the summer conditioning the chicks to fly
behind an ultralight aircraft.
This fall the team will guide the young cranes on their first
southern migration, leading them by ultralight over Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia before arriving at
Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on Florida's Gulf coast, the
cranes' winter home. They will be the third group of
juvenile whooping cranes to take part in a project designed to
reintroduce a migratory flock of whooping cranes to a portion of
their former range in eastern North America.
Whooping cranes are among the most endangered birds in North
America. The chicks were flown to Necedah from
the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., where they
hatched. While the reintroduction project this year will take place
with up to 18 cranes, only the 10 oldest crane chicks arrived
Thursday. The remaining
cranes will be transported later this month to Necedah, one of 540
national wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. At Patuxent, the whooping cranes are
introduced to ultralight aircraft and raised in isolation from
humans. To ensure the
birds remain wild, project biologists and pilots adhere to a
no-talking rule, play recorded crane calls and wear costumes
designed to mask the human form whenever they are around the cranes. Biologists from the International Crane Foundation and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will monitor the cranes over the
winter and track them next spring during their return migration,
which they will undertake unaided by ultralight aircraft. All but two of the 21 cranes from the
2001 and 2002 flocks returned to Wisconsin on their own this spring. One crane had to be flown by aircraft from Ohio back to
Necedah NWR, and another crane remains in north-central Illinois. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
is a consortium of non-profit organizations and government agencies. Founding members are the Many other flyway states, provinces,
private individuals and conservation groups have joined forces with
and support the partnership by donating resources, funding and
personnel. More than 60 percent of the estimated $1.8 million budget
comes from private sources in the form of grants, donations and corporate sponsors. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
thanks Windway Capital Corporation for donating its plane and pilot
to transport the cranes. Contact Kathleen O’Malley, Laurel, MD, 301-497-5609. |
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