WHOOPING CRANE CHICK: DAY 14

 
       Photo by Nelson Beyer, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

 
  Photos by Damien Ossi, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

     The Crane and Web Crew
Back row from the left: Dan Sprague, Brian Clauss, George Gee, Nelson Beyer, Jonathan Male, Kathleen O'Malley, Matthew Kinloch, Bob Munro, Damien Ossi
Front row from the left: Barbara Niccolai, Jane Nicolich, Brenda Fontanella, Lillian Carter, Kinard Boone, Sara Martin, Lois Loges
Not Pictured: Carlyn Williamson, Chris Brown

Patuxent is 14 days old today (on May 15, 2000)! He's gone a long way from just an egg, then a small fluffy chick in an intensive care unit. He's an independent young crane now, standing tall, foraging on his own, interacting with his imprinting model, and learning how to catch food in the marsh. He'll learn more every day, grow taller, and before long he'll be sprouting those long black primaries that'll help him fly freely in Florida. 

While we will no longer be keeping you informed of Tux's day-to-day progress, we will be updating the site regularly and bringing you pictures and news about him as he grows. Please check back with us on June 1 and find out how Tux, his sibling Chessie, and the other chicks at Patuxent are doing.

A big thanks from all of us at Patuxent for your interest in our chick! 

And we want to give a special thanks to Nelson Beyer who imagined this unique website event and motivated it from the start.  And thanks to Kathleen O'Malley for providing the entertaining daily stories about our chick!

Please check our site June 1st!!

Juvenile Whoopers Practice Flying at Patuxent

  Photo by Barbara Niccolai, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

 When Tux is around nine months old, sometime in January or February of 2001, he'll be put on a jet to Florida. There, he'll be given a special leg band with a radio on it, and penned for a month with other birds his own age--the chicks we're raising now. His wing will be tied so he can't fly out of the pen. He'll spend that time, with the rest of his group--his cohort--getting used to the surrounding area which will be new to him. After a month, his wing will be freed. It'll take about a week before the stiffness in that wing will ease, then he and his cohort will fly out of the pen on their own. They may join with other whoopers already in the release area, or his cohort may stay together and discover their new world by themselves. They'll be tracked every day by radio. We can only hope that Tux will grow up healthy and survive in Florida to someday be another member of a successful pair of crane parents. He and the other chicks we are currently raising are all part of the effort to save the whooping crane.