THE WHOOPING CRANE REPORT: 6 |
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Spike is on the left, and Shelly is on the right. Spike stays closer to the photographer, Jane, to keep himself between Jane and Shelly to protect his mate. Both birds are doing a "strut walk" which in crane language, is a threat. Another crane would understand this was an order to leave their territory
Spike, here, is in the foreground. Shelly is behind him. He is still keeping himself between Jane and Shelly, making sure that Jane can't get too close to Shelly. Both Spike and Shelly have turned their heads slightly to make sure Jane can see the bright red crowns on their heads. Cranes communicate through the size, color, and condition of their crowns, and this display would tell another crane that this territory is taken and they should leave.
Damien manages to get closer to Shelly. She is displaying her crown, hoping he'll get the message to leave. The cranes must wonder why we don't "hear" what they're saying when their language is so obvious to other cranes. |
The Breeding Pairs: Since we wouldn't have a breeding season without our breeding pairs, we wanted to feature some of them on our whooping crane reports. We are in full production now, with cranes still laying, and chicks hatching already. See our Cool Facts, below, for information about this year's breeding season. Spike and Shelly are one of the best producing pairs at Patuxent.
Spike's Patuxent ID number is 02-84003 and Shelly's is 02-85001. The "02" number stands for their species, whooping crane. The next
two digits stand for the year they were hatched. Spike was hatched in 1984
and Shelly in 1985. The last three digits signify the order they hatched
of all the chicks hatched in that year. Spike was the third chick hatched
in 1984, and Shelly was the first chick hatched in 1985. Both birds
originated at Patuxent. Spike is the son of Canus and Mrs. C. Spike and Shelly have been together since the late '80's. Their first egg hatched in 1992. For awhile it didn't seem as if they would be good producers since they didn't like their eggs very much. Shelly got her name from the bad habit she had of breaking egg "shells" when she was young. She and Spike both broke eggs. Fortunately, we were able to discourage them from the habit by giving them unbreakable artificial crane eggs made of wood. Once they were convinced they couldn't break the eggs, they started taking care of them. They're excellent parents and last year raised a healthy chick to fledging age (70 days). They have offspring at Patuxent, and in Florida in the wild, and also in Yellowstone Park. Two of their chicks were part of an experiment using ultra-flight aircraft to teach whoopers a migratory route. Spike got his name because of a "spike" of feathers he had on his head when he was young. It's gone now, but his name remains. 2000 Production report for Spike and Shelly: Eggs Produced: 9. Eggs
Fertile: 8, 1 unknown. For this year, Spike and Shelly have already produced 7 eggs. Please check our site on May 10th for a web page update! We hope to have some surprises for you! |
Cool Facts:
Click here to ask questions about Patuxent's whooping crane program. Please check our site on May 10 for a web page update! |
Hatch Day (Click on numbered links to view all other egg (negative numbers) and chick days).
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Our
first whooper chick hatched on April 9th. It was one of Spike and
Shelly's chicks. That chick is being raised for the Florida release
program, and so far he's a healthy, active chick. We currently have
5 whooper chicks on the ground, two of them hatched on Easter day.
So far, we have 32 whooper eggs from our breeding flock. It takes a
while to determine how many of the eggs are fertile, but they each
hold the promise of another whooper to bolster the numbers of this
rare species.