Challenge Question: Whooping Crane

From: by way of Journey North <dfirmani@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat Apr 01 2006 - 19:41:01 EST

Dear Journey North,

Question #5

The 2005 cranes arrived at the wintering grounds on December 13th and left on March 28th, so they spent 105 days on the wintering grounds. Crane #520 left the day before with crane #309 (from 2003). The average number of days spent on the wintering grounds for all five years is 115.2. It appears that there is a trend that the number of days on the wintering grounds is getting shorter. Are there any ideas on why this may be?

Question #6

Crane #309 may have a better chance of getting to Wisconsin this time because crane #520 is with her. But this would help her only if #520 has a better recollection of where she fledged than #309 seems to have. Crane #309 has shown that she has a relatively good sense of the right latitude (how far north to go), but not a good sense of east or west or the appearance of the place she fledged. If #520 is able to help narrow down the exact location by recognition, they may reach the right longitude and arrive where they should be going. However, if #520 just follows #309 and does not assert her sense of where they should be going (which may happen since #520 is a younger crane and tends to be submissive, whereas #309 is very independent), then, they could end up in a range of places roughly along the right latitude, as #309 has done for the past two years.

Marcus F.
Home schooled, Mount Airy, Maryland, sixth grade

Received on Sat Apr 1 19:41:10 2006

Crane Question #5 and #6