The Whooping Crane
(Grus Americana)

By Sarah Culver

Sims, Kevin. Whooping Crane in Flight. N.d. Web. 

Description and Ecology

The Whooping Crane is the tallest bird in North America. They are nearly 5 feet tall, with a wingspan of 7.5 feet. Adult Whooping Cranes are almost entirely white with a large red patch on their head that extends from its cheek and along its bill. They also have black bristly feathers on the side of their head extending to their jaw. Their bill is a dark olive-gray which lightens during the breeding season, while the base of the bill is pink. When juvenile Whooping Cranes are born they have a reddish cinnamon colored plumage. Whooping Cranes can start laying eggs as early as three years old. Not only do they begin breeding at a young age, but they also tend to be very loyal to their breeding grounds and show considerable fidelity to their partner year after year. Their breeding territory tends to be where families are restricted to until the chicks are a few months of age.  Although, they may end up skipping a nesting season if their habitat conditions are unsuitable.

Juvenile and adult Whooping Crane in breeding grounds
Nigge, Klaus. "Whooping Crane." N.p., n.d. Web.
 <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/476466835549716437/>.

Whooping Cranes are omnivorous feeders so they mainly eat crabs, crayfish, frogs and other small aquatic life. Blue Crabs serve as the best meal for Whooping Cranes because they  supply a balance of nutrients, protein and fat. They are the perfect source of energy before Whooping Cranes take their long migration North.  In 1994, Blue Crabs became scare which was extremely detrimental to the birds ability to reproduce, nearly half of the Whoopers failed to nest.
When Blue Crabs are in trouble Cranes are in trouble too! Click HERE to learn more. 

Geographic & Population Changes

Whooping cranes occur only in North America within Canada and the United States. They tend to migrate towards wetlands like coastal marshes, ponds, lakes, wet meadows, rivers, and agricultural fields. Whooping Cranes depart from their winter grounds in ANWR during the Spring time between March 25th and April 15th. They separate from their young from the previous year and head towards their new breeding grounds in WBNP. Autumn migration normally begins in mid September for Whooping Cranes, and they make many stops along the way. Their first stop usually occurs in Northeast Alberta, where they generally stay for 2-4 weeks until they continue on with their journey. Whooping Cranes currently exist in the wild at three locations and in captivity at nine different sites. In the mid 1800s as many as 1,400 Whooping Cranes migrated across North America, this population dwindled and by the late 1930s the population had dropped to 18 birds. Slowly the population began to rise and by 2006 their total wild population was estimated to be around 338.

Whooping Crane Migration Route
Erickson, Laura. Whooping Crane. Digital image. Journey North. N.p., n.d. Web. <://www.learner.org/jnorth/images/graphics/c/craneHY03_102.jpg>.

Listing

After the Whooping Crane faced many years of near extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally listed them in the Endangered Species Act in 1967. Although, it took the ESA until 1973 to include the five factor threats of the species.

Cause of listing and Main threats 

Close proximity of developed area to Whooping Crane territory
Stehn, Tom. "Human Developments Threaten Whooping Cranes." 
Whooping Crane Conservation Association. N.p., 10 July 2011. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.

The Whooping Crane is threatened primarily by human activity and habitat destruction. The overwhelming growth of the human population has had drastic effects on the Whooping Crane's habitat. Humans began to transform the native prairies and potholes of the Northern Great Plains and Canada into farm land by adding electric power lines, fences, draining out the wet lands and planting seeds. These changes made the land very unsuitable for Whooping Cranes. The extensive drainage had a major effect on them because it created a huge loss of their annual winter migration grounds. Whooping Cranes are also losing a lot of crucial freshwater inflow of salinity gradients, nutrient loadings, and sediments that are needed to maintain a ecologically healthy estuary. They are losing these vital nutrient sources due to upstream reservoir construction and water conversions for agriculture. Unfortunately, many existing water rights are starting to become more utilized. They continue to be granted on the Guadalupe River; which flows right into the Whooping Cranes critical habitat Aransas. These rights allow people to use large quantities of water for municipal purposes, which can be very detrimental to the Whooping Crane's habitat.
The loss of habitat has also created the birds to become much more concentrated, which has led to a vast increase of exposure and transmission of different diseases. Diseases such as Avian Cholera, Avian Tuberculosis, and Infectious Bursal Disease have all had a  major impact on some of the reintroduction programs in Florida.  

Whooping Crane shot down by hunter
Collins, Courtney. "Whooping Crane Shot in Louisiana."
Knoe 8 News. N.p., 28 Jan. 2015. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. 

In addition, hunting has been a primary reason for the cause of Whooping Crane's historical decline. There were 389 recorded deaths due to gunshots in 1952, which was a majority of the population at this time. Predators are another threat to the Whooping Crane population. Usually, eggs and chicks are the most susceptible to predators such as black bears, wolves, foxes, ravens and other mammals. Whooping Crane chicks also struggle to survive because when they hatch there is immediate competition and aggression between the siblings. The large and dominant chick always outlasts the others due to its ability of obtaining food from the parents first. Cold weather can also be a factor in the mortality of new born chicks.

Recovery Plan

This third revision of the International recovery plan for the Whooping Crane was approved in 2006. It aims to protect the Whooping Crane and its habitat so that they can eventually become ecologically

and genetically stable. Hopefully one day they will become downlisted and possibly even delisted.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans on doing this in five ways:

1. The plans first objective would be increasing the AWBP by establishing self sustaining populations. This begins by maintaining 40 productive pairs that can nest regularly and have offspring, for at least 10 years in the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population (AWBP). Meanwhile, establishing 25 productive pairs at two other locations. If all three of these populations can maintain this for a decade, the species could be downlisted. They plan on doing this by using aerial surveys to monitor the population numbers, reducing mortality by preventing shooting and conflicts with sport hunting, developing methods of disease prevention, and monitoring the placement of all new power lines to prevent collision. In order to increase the AWBP we also have to minimize the disturbance from human activities by coordinating construction projects when the birds are absent and restricting aircraft altitudes in sensitive areas.

2. The second step to recovery is maintaining captive populations. The populations must be able to develop appropriate amounts of genetic diversity, they plan to do this by using a thorough pedigree history that out lines each pairs production, so they can try to prevent family members from mating. 

3. The third step to recovery is establishing two additional wild populations, each consisting of at least 25 nesting pairs. 

4. The fourth step to recovery is to determine the minimum population size that is needed to ensure survival of the Whooping Crane. They plan to do this by using previous knowledge of small populations and information from populations that survived for a long term to estimate the amount needed. 

5. The fifth step to recovery is to expand education programs. They plan to do this by issuing press releases to the public of the population counts, migration routes and the progress of reintroduced populations. In order to get the word out they will also develop media products regarding the recovery program, as well as providing viewing opportunities of live Whooping Cranes to the public. 

Nuwer, Rachel. "Young Whoopers Take Flight." Green Blog.
  New York Times,18 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.

Click HERE to watch Whooping Cranes being taught to fly through Operation Migration

What can YOU do?

1. Donate to the nonprofit organization Operation Migration. They are an amazing organization that uses ultralight aircraft to guide the captive-hatched and imprinted Whooping Cranes along a migration route from Wisconsin to Florida.

2. Spread the news about Whooping Cranes. Tell everyone about the Whooping Crane Reintroduction Project, which is the beginning of a new flock of Eastern Whooping Cranes. The first step in making change is creating awareness.

3. Step up and speak out by sending letters to your congressional representatives demanding that more effort needs to be made in order to protect our wetlands.

4. Volunteer at a National Wildlife Refuge and help protect migratory wetlands from getting paved, dried up or built on. 

Sources

Erickson, Laura. "Whooping Crane." Journey North. Journey North, 1997. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. <http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/Crane.html>.

"Our Work." Operation Migration. Operation Migration, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://www.operationmigration.org/work_wcranes.html>.

Canadian Wildlife Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2007. International recovery plan for the whooping crane. Ottawa: Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife (RENEW), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 162 pp.