RAY and YAY Complete Migration to Canada
Jessica Rempel, The Crane Trust
We are so excited that RAY and YAY completed their migrations and have arrived in Wood Buffalo! It was a great winter of collecting wintering ground information on these two cranes, and now to have the migration information as well is phenomenal. We're looking forward to learning more about how these two cranes use the breeding grounds:
- We know RAY is a young crane, so we expect him to wander a little bit since he is not a breeder and is not tied to a specific territory yet, so it will be interesting to see how he moves around, what areas he uses, if he remains in any one place for any period of time, etc.
- We're not sure of YAY's age, so she may still be a non-breeding sub-adult or she may be a breeding adult. If she's a breeder, we'd expect her GPS data to indicate she has a territory. And, of course, if she's a successful breeder, we'd expect to see her with chick(s) on her arrival in Texas next winter!
This computer Screen shows the two cranes' migration routes on a generic map of the US. RAY is in red, YAY is in yellow. Even at a distance you can see how similar their migration paths were.
The transmitters are expected to last 3-5 years, so we will get at least a few more migrations worth of data on both these cranes (as well as wintering and summering information)!
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