THE WHOOPING CRANE REPORT: 30 |
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The Breeding Pair -- Hal and Hanna Hal and Hanna are two of our oldest whoopers and are now our oldest breeding pair. (Canus' mate, Mrs. C, is our oldest whooping crane.) Hal was hatched in 1974, from an egg brought from the wild flock in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. Hanna was produced at Patuxent and is one of Canus' daughters. She was hatched in 1977. In the early days of the program when we had only a few pairs, Hal and Hanna were designated "the 'H' pair" in an alphabetical identification system used at the time. After that system was replaced with the numerical system in use now, the old H pair became Hal and Hanna. They were paired in 1982. Hal is not able to fly, and so the pair is not naturally fertile. We use artificial insemination to fertilize Hanna's eggs, and we also use Hal's semen to fertilize other genetically compatible whooper females. Unfortunately, Hanna has not been able to produce whooper chicks for us. She doesn't lay every year, and when she does, she often produces small, infertile eggs. Hal, through artificial insemination, has been a successful sire. He is the father of Shelly, one of our most successful breeders, who was featured in a previous report. Hal also sired Lancelot, a bird in the Calgary whooper breeding program. Hal has also sired more than twelve chicks that were sent to Florida for release. |
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Hanna's crooked toes. Since she was hatched, we've learned how to solve this problem. Hanna's environment has to be managed to make sure she has mobility. Photos, Kathleen O'Malley, USGS |
Hal & Hanna as Parents While Hanna may not have produced any chicks herself, she and Hal are more than willing to raise other pairs' chicks. Even when Hanna hasn't laid eggs herself, she will often accept a dummy egg (an artificial wooden egg painted to look like a whooper egg, or a crane eggshell filled with plaster) and incubate it, and then later accept a hatching egg in its place. In fact, Hal and Hanna are such eager parents that they will often tolerate "chick swaps." When adopting crane chicks to pairs who may not be hatching their own egg, we try to time things so that pairs are either given eggs just beginning to hatch, or chicks that have hatched when the adults are expecting the dummy egg they've been incubating to hatch. If you do it too soon, the parents won't be ready and may not accept the chick. If you do it too late, the parents may have given up on the egg and abandoned it and won't accept the chick. With all the eggs and chicks we're handling during the season, it isn't always possible to get everything timed just perfectly -- sometimes chicks hatch a little early or a little late or don't hatch at all, and the timing is off. Hal and Hanna are very tolerant, and we have sometimes given them a young sandhill chick to raise for a few days while we wait for the whooper chick we really want them to have, and then we'll "swap" the whooper for the sandhill. Some birds won't tolerate this kind of change. But the old H pair seems happy to have a chick to raise, even if it looks a little different, or is older or younger. They have an excellent success rate for fledging adopted whooper chicks. (You can read more about egg management at Patuxent in Report 16: The Complicated Life of a Patuxent Whooper Egg.) Hanna's Crooked Toes Hanna was raised in the early years of the crane program. When she was hatched, biologists were only beginning to learn how to solve growth problems like curled toes and rotating hocks. Now we can correct crooked toes so chicks grow up with normal feet. Hanna's crooked toes are a slight impediment to her, but she usually navigates her pen with little difficulty. When it snows, we may have to provide her with a covering of straw to help her get around, and in the summer, she sometimes needs extra vegetation control to have a better walking surface. |
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This Year's Migration Success! Regular updates and pictures of this year's ultralight
migration can be found on
Operation Migration's website in their Field
Journal. More updates and information on the WCEP project can be found at: |
More information about this year's production in Florida and the status of the non-migratory whoopers can be found on the Whooping Crane Conservation Association's website under Flock Status. See our Crane Videos! |
Click here to ask questions about Patuxent's whooping crane program. And don't forget to check out our new SITE MAP to learn more about our previously published whooper reports. Please check our site on February 26th for a web page update!
Whooping Crane Reports| 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 28 | 29 | 30 |
Hatch Day (Click on numbered links to view all other egg (negative numbers) and chick days).
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