The Costume-Reared Chicks
by Heather Ray, Operation Migration
September 15, 2017

Whooping crane costumed Puppets point out things that the young cranes can eat
Heather Ray

Puppets point out things that the young cranes can eat, like berries, frogs and even snakes!


September 15, 2017

Welcome to the 16th year of the Eastern Migratory Reintroduction of Whooping cranes! This year, two reintroduction methods will be used. These are referred to as “Modified Costume Rearing” (CR) and “Parent Rearing” (PR).

In this update, we’ll focus on the Costume-Reared Whooping cranes. The Costume Rearing method is designed so that young cranes are introduced to the summer home much earlier than other methods. This is so that the first area they see when they fly, they will consider their summer territory and return to the area in the future each spring. Under the Modified Costume Rearing method, young Whooping cranes were relocated from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland to the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area on June 21st.

There are 7 CR Whooping cranes this year. How many days separate the young cranes in age? The oldest hatched on April 24th and the youngest on May 3rd.  The cranes hatched at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. Patuxent is a captive breeding center for this endangered species. Even though the crane chicks hatched there, not all seven eggs were produced at their facility. All but one of them came from eggs collected from Whooping crane nests in Wisconsin!

The whooping cranes took a cross-country plane trip on June 21st from Maryland to Wisconsin and the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area in Green Lake County. Question: Can you locate Green Lake County on a map? If so, can you now find White River Marsh?

Whooping Crane costume-reared checks have a large pen.
Heather Ray

The seven cranes are housed in a pen that is 10,000 square feet in size. (That’s big!)

Each day two costumed caretakers arrive and open the double doors to allow the cranes to come out of their enclosure and to explore the surrounding marsh. The costumed handlers also use puppets that look like adult whooping cranes. Puppets point out things that the young cranes can eat, like berries, frogs and even snakes!

Whooping crane puppet
Heather Ray

The costumed handlers use puppets that look like adult whooping cranes.

They are led on long walks around White River Marsh. Sometimes the walks lead to a pond. Over the summer, this pond has become their favorite spot to travel to and now that it’s September, the cranes fly to it on their own!

The cranes are now 4 months old.  Very soon, as fall approaches, this group will be released so that they can fly and explore more of Wisconsin on their own. We hope they will meet older, experienced Whooping cranes that already know a migration route to somewhere in the south. There are already 100 whooping cranes in Wisconsin so the chances are very good that they will find some migration teachers among them.

Next update, we’ll introduce you to the second group of Whooping cranes – the Parent-Reared (PR) cranes!

Heather Ray
Operation Migration