News from Scientists at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Wednesday, November 3, 2004
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Patuxent's Class of 2004 Takes Flight Presidential candidates weren't the only ones flying from one swing state to another as news cameras rolled. This autumn marks the 4th year in a row that biologists from the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center have led groups of whooping cranes on an extraordinary 1200-mile migration, teaching them to fly from WI to wintering grounds in FL behind an ultralight aircraft. This year's groups of 14 whoopers have already begun their maiden journey with their ultralight "parents. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 pm, Maryland Public Television's program "Outdoors Maryland," will showcase this revolutionary effort to save the endangered whooping crane and to reintroduce a new migratory flock of whoopers to the Eastern US. Patuxent raises all of the whooper chicks involved in the migration experiment under rigid training protocols that minimize human exposure. Staff working with the young whoopers use specially designed whooper-look-alike puppets, play recordings of whooper sounds, and wear costumes to disguise the human form. The chicks are introduced to the ultralight aircraft when they are only a few days old, and are gradually taught to follow the plane on the ground. Already, 36 whoopers live wild and migrate on their own on the new flyway. Contact: Kathy O'Malley, Laurel, MD, 301-497-5609 and John B. French, Laurel, Maryland, 301-497-5702 USGS Crane Husbandry and Propagation Program The program at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center was the topic of the October 28th Washington Times article interviewing John French and Kathy O’Malley. “The young chicks become accustomed to the sound of the airplane while still in the egg. After birth, they are fed with the help of a hand puppet that resembles a mother crane. Handlers never speak ion front of a crane so they don’t get used to the human voice. The Center aims to produce the wildest chicks it can, so when it is released into the wild, it will want to stay there – far away from humans.” Contact: John B. French, Laurel, Maryland, 301-497-5702 and Kathy O'Malley, Laurel, MD, 301-497-5609 |
Workshop Addresses International Concerns over Phalaropes On October 25 and 26, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (PWRC), in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, hosted a technical workshop in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, to address the dramatic decline of red-necked phalaropes in the Bay of Fundy and adjacent portions of the Gulf of Maine. The phalarope is a small, aquatic shorebird that formerly gathered near the U.S.-Canada border in numbers estimated as high as 2 million, during their post-breeding migration from the sub-Arctic. These birds are believed to have represented most of the eastern Canadian breeding population. A precipitous decline to just a few hundred from a few thousand occurred in the mid-1980s and has continued until the present. The purpose of the workshop was to evaluate the evidence for decline, as opposed to redistribution, and to develop a research and monitoring plan to further elucidate the situation and to determine potential impacts on the hemispheric population. Much useful information, including evidence for parallel declines in the phalaropes’ preferred invertebrate food, was presented. A complete report and plan will be available in a couple of months. The workshop was supported by Quick Response funds awarded to further a collaboration between PWRC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 5. Contact: Marshall Howe, Laurel, MD, 301-487-5858 |
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