16 BirdWatching • September/October 2019
government agencies and nonprofits
have worked to establish other
breeding populations.
In the mid-1970s, they tried cross-
fostering eggs in the nests of Sandhill
Cranes in Idaho, but while the Whoop-
ers learned to migrate with their cousins,
they also imprinted on Sandhills. The
Whooping Cranes failed to mate, and
the project was discontinued.
In 1993, a non-migratory population
was established near Kissimmee,
Florida, and through 2004, 289 captive-
bred birds were released. However, high
mortality and low reproductive success
led to the project being discontinued. In
2018, 14 cranes remained, and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a
plan to relocate at least a few of them to a
more recently established population in
Louisiana. In February 2019, a 21-year-
old female and her 4-year-old daughter
were caught and transferred to the
Louisiana flock.
The third attempt to create a new
breeding population began in 2001,
when young cranes raised by costumed
handlers were trained to follow ultralight
aircraft along a migration route from
Wisconsin to Florida. The Whooping
Crane Eastern Partnership, a coalition of
government agencies and nonprofits,
oversees the f lock’s management.
The birds were led south by the crew
of Operation Migration, a Canada-based
nonprofit. The sight of endangered birds
following one-person ultralights
garnered a lot of media attention and a
loyal following of “craniacs” online.
“For 15 years, Operation Migration
pilots and a dedicated ground crew led
Whooping Cranes on a journey toward
survival,” the group says on its website.
“During those years, we contributed
more than $10 million and covered
17,457 miles with a total of 186 trusting
Whooping Cranes trailing off our
wingtips.
“Each of the cranes that survived the
winter period in Florida returned north
the following spring and continued to
migrate annually thereafter.”
Nevertheless, breeding success was
limited, and the Fish and Wildlife
Service decided in early 2016 to
discontinue the ultralight-guided f locks
in favor of other release methods.
Operation Migration continued to be
involved until August 2018, when it
resigned from the WCEP over disagree-
ments with the management of the
f lock. Operation Migration dissolved
last December.
Through early July 2019, the Eastern
Migratory Population numbered 87
cranes, not including young birds. Out
of 19 chicks hatched in the wild this
summer, five were still alive on July 9. If
all survive to f ledge, the total would be92 birds, which would be one of the
lowest totals in recent years.BACK IN CAJUN COUNTRY
Louisiana’s 71,905-acre White Lake
Wetlands Conservation Area, in the
southcentral part of the state, is the
home of the fourth reintroduced
population. (The site has a history with
the species, having hosted a small
remnant population into the 1940s.)
The first 10 birds were released at
White Lake in 2011, and in subsequent
years, up to 27 cranes have been released
annually. The first wild-reared chick in
Louisiana f ledged in 2016, and last year,
five chicks joined the population. By
March 2019, the population stood at
75 birds. And while they’re not migra-
tory, they do tend to wander. One bird,
for example, spent last winter at an
Alabama wildlife refuge, came back to
Louisiana in spring, spent time in
Arkansas, and then f lew northwest to
Oklahoma, where it spent the previous
summer. Two others f lew to Canada one
spring, and one survived and made it
back to Louisiana.
“Everything with Whooping Cranes
is slow and requires a lot of patience, and
that’s frustrating and hard at times,”WINTERING: A pair of Whoopers forage at
Aransas. Telemetry studies have shown that
while some cranes stay on a territory all winter,
others move around often.
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