An adult whooper, Ernie, at Patuxent.

Whooper chicks enjoying the day in the pond pens at Patuxent, before leaving for Wisconsin.

Lucky and one of his parents flying free in Florida. (Both pictures taken before Lucky was banded.)

WWW = World Wide Whoopers!

We receive many interesting emails through this website, and some of the people writing to us are looking for more information than we can provide at this site. Students, in particular, are looking for resources and information to help them in school and with reports. So, we thought we'd do a little homework of our own and see what other information on whoopers is out there.

Simply typing in "whooping cranes" on the Google search engine (www.google.com) came up with over 13,000 hits! We only had time to skim through a few of the selections, and of course, our site came up more than once. But besides Patuxent's site, and the web pages that belong to our various partners (see Report 17 and links below) there are many other people out there with interesting, well-done, and informative websites about whooping cranes.

A page devoted to crane migrations through Nebraska, and especially to the whooping crane can be found at:

Their whooper page is at:

The site has topics about the birds' description, habits, reproduction, habitat, limiting factors, and outlook. A map of the whoopers' distribution through North America can be found at:

Another page on whoopers is:

It offers information, a small map and other links.

A great Canadian page with maps, updates on current breeding situations, nest sites, and more is at:

Another Canada page, this one focusing on Alberta, is:

The official page for the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is at:

Topics at this site include a summary, information on subspecies and populations, population numbers and trends, conservation status, historic and present distribution, distribution by country, habitat and ecology, principal threats, current conservation measures, and priority conservation measures.

There's an excellent map linked to this page, some charts, and other scientific information.

A fascinating informational site about the global study of world wide animal migrations, called The Journey North, has a lot of information about whooping cranes (and many other migrating animals):

This site is excellent for students. It's chock full of information, not only about migration, but also what birds eat while migrating and other interesting facts. It has the answers to lots of questions for you report-writers, and a big, detailed, printable map (in color!) of the migration route of last year's experimental flock of whoopers.

There's a Texas Whooping crane site that has reports, past and present, from the Whooping Crane Coordinator. There is also information on the status of WCs now.

This site also has maps of Aransas, where the whoopers spend the winter, and maps migration routes, and has other information.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife page has more info and pictures of whoopers:

A site with information on all of Texas' endangered species, including the whooping crane, can be found here:

If you'd like to see some terrific photos of whoopers living in the wild in Florida, you can go here:

One of our partners, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, has a page on whooper reintroduction:

An organization called The Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust has a lovely page at:

You can find information, pictures, charts, and other items of interest there.

The National Wildlife Federation has a great page:

You can download sounds, see video, and get information, maps, history and science facts.

There are some really terrific pictures of the ultra-light birds at:

There are opportunities to see whoopers, and other cranes, at several crane, wildlife, and birding festivals held across the country.

The Port Aransas Whooping Crane Festival is held in Texas. The next one will be Port Aransas on Mustang Island, Texas, February 21 - 23, 2003. Whooping crane tours are part of the festival.:

If you're interested in seeing large numbers of migrating sandhill cranes, check out the Monte Vista Crane Festival in Colorado. This festival is usually held in March during the birds' spring migration.:

Another important site to migrating sandhill cranes is the Platte River. Two organizations, Audubon Nebraska and Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary, have a festival to celebrate the migration and the river. The Annual Rivers & Wildlife Celebration offers seminars and viewings of the largest concentration of migrating cranes in the world. Check them out at these two sites:

Lucky gets banded! On September 4th, biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission  captured Lucky, the whooper chick that fledged recently to two Patuxent-raised release birds. (See Report 18) The biologists successfully, and safely, captured Lucky and his parents and were able do physical exams on all three birds, put on new radio transmitters, and band Lucky for identification purposes. The total time from capture to release was only 20 minutes. The whole process was as smooth and stress free as it could be. Lucky and his parents are no longer at the nest marsh where Lucky grew up. Rains have finally come to Florida and the marsh has been restored to the lake it should be. The crane parents and Lucky have been remaining in the area in good pasture habitats. (Thanks to Marty Folk  with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for the report.)

The 17 whooper chicks reared at Patuxent continue to develop and are doing well in their training. Many of them are starting to fly now. The plan is for the migration to begin in early October.

You can read regular updates of the chicks' training and progress at:

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership website:

and also at Operation Migration's website:

For more interesting news and information about whoopers and the reintroduction effort, check out our other partners' websites on this page.

Please check our site on October 17th for a web page update.