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Chicks
in Captivity
The handlers
that care for the chicks spend many hours teaching them how
to eat. They also know that a crane's favorite color is red.
The
costumed handler dips the bill of a crane puppet into
a bowl
of water, then into a dish of crane-crumbles. (The crumbles
contain everything a growing
chick needs.) The crumbles stick
to the puppet's wet bill and the chick pecks the food off
the bill. Soon the chick will follow the puppet bill to
the
food
or water. Next, it will wobble over to the dish to serve
itself.
As
the chicks grow, the handler and puppet lead them into
their
natural marshy habitat to find food. |
Chicks
in the Wild
Even
in the wild, whooper parents must teach their chicks to eat
and drink. Wild whooper parents catch food for their chicks
and feed them all day long. But wild chicks don't eat crane
crumbles!
During
the summer, family groups spend their time in the shallows
of small ponds and marshes. The parents gather foods to
feed to their young. Dragonfly larvae, tadpoles,
frogs, crickets, and bits
of
larger prey, such as snakes and mice, are some of these foods.
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