Good news story but I have heard of everything with helping with their
migration with an ultralight.
Terry B
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- One of the first whooping crane chicks hatched
in the wild in more than a century is making more history as it migrates
south with its parents from a Wisconsin refuge.
The chick, whose sibling apparently was killed by a predator, hatched in
June at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin, according
to Operation Migration, the group coordinating an effort to establish a
second migrating flock of the birds in North America.
The journey toward Florida began Sunday. As of Thursday, the three cranes
were stopped in Parke County, Indiana, according to the researchers.
Operation Migration also has ultralight aircraft leading a separate flock of
18 young cranes hatched in captivity to a Florida refuge as part of the
project. Those cranes make many stops along the way. They are kept in
portable pens at night and when weather conditions aren't good enough to fly
By Friday, they had traveled about 675 miles to Cumberland County, Tennesee.
It marks the sixth consecutive fall that young whooping cranes have been led
south to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge near Crystal River,
Florida. From then on, the cranes migrate on their own.
As of this fall, the flock included 64 released cranes that have survived in
the wild, plus the one surviving chick that was hatched in the wild.
The whooping crane, the tallest bird in North America, was near extinction
in 1941, with only about 20 left.
The only other migrating flock has about 200 birds and migrates from Canada to
the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migratory flock in Florida has about 60 birds.
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