The whooping crane is an endangered species with a success story to tell. Their population hit an all time low in 1940 when there were only 22 cranes left in the wild. Their numbers have been steadily building, year-by-year, as shown in the chart below.
Each spring the entire flock of wild whooping cranes takes the annual 2,700 mile journey from their wintering grounds in Texas to their nesting grounds in northern Canada. They usually arrive in late April or early May just as the ice and snow is melting from the marshes.
Tom Stehn, Refuge Bilogist at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Austwell, Texas will provide updates this spring as the cranes begin their migration. His first report is attached below.
Whooping cranes mate for life, and we'll pay special attention this spring to the "Nyarling pair", the most popular crane couple. This is the pair people are most likely to see when they visit the whoopers' winter home in Texas. They're named after the Nyarling River which flows beside their nest in Wood Buffalo National Park.
Can you find Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on a map, near Austwell, Texas? Also try to find the Nyarling River in Wood Buffalo National Park. (The Park is located on the border of Alberta and the Northwest Territories.)
A network of people along the whoopers' migratory path watches over their journey each spring and will report to us periodically.
To: Journey North From: Tom Stehn
This winter we have 132 whooping cranes at Aransas. The 133rd whooping crane in the flock was a juvenile that separated from its parents somewhere in the U.S. during the fall migration. Since it was no longer with its parents that would have led it to Aransas, the juvenile followed its cousin sandhill cranes to Oklahoma and spent the winter there. Sandhills normally winter in Texas but the mild winter allowed many to stay in Oklahoma. On February 10th the juvenile whooping crane migrated to the Platte River in Nebraska where up to 1/2 million sandhills will gather this month.
The 133 whoopers in the flock are down three birds from last spring. Although 8 juveniles were hatched during the summer and survivied, 11 adults died from unknown causes. Take the gain of 8 and a loss of 11 and you get a net loss of three whoopers. This was very disappointing to us. More chicks would have been produced except that last April, when the whoopers returned to their nesting grounds in northern Canada, there was still lots of ice and snow present and nearly half of the whooper pairs decided not to build a nest. The Nyarling pair did nest (they are one of our best pairs), but the chick died during the summer. You can see how it is such a struggle for whooping cranes to survive when they normally can only produce one chick per year.
The good news is that all 133 whoopers have survived this winter. There have been lots of blue crabs in the marshes for them to eat, their favorite food. At the end of March and first part of April, I will be saying goodbye to the whoopers as they head for Canada. But this year I hope to fly up to Wood Buffalo National Park in June and help the Canadian biologist count how many chicks have hatched. We hope the whoopers will have a great summer and that the flock hatch as many has 30 chicks.
I worry that the Endangered Species Act has not yet been reauthorized by Congress. We need to contiue to have a strong law to proect all kinds of endangered plants and animals.
Please hope that the whoopers have a safe trip north.
Tom Stehn Refuge Biologist
Want to know more?
A fascinating overview of the challenges whooping cranes face on their wintering grounds can be found in the July/August issue of Audubon Magazine. Written by Sue Halpern, the article is entitled, "Losing Ground. Whooping Cranes Have Made a Comeback. It's Their Refuge That's Eroding."
The chart below shows the crane's comeback over the past 55 years. As you learn about the challenges the cranes face each year--during the winter, along the path of their spring and fall migration, and on the nesting grounds--- make a list of all the obstacles they must overcome. Send it to us when your list is complete! Mail to: jnorth@informns.k12.mn.us
Year Population Size
1940 22 1950 34 1960 33 1970 56 1980 76 1990 146 1991 132 1992 136 1993 143 1994 133 (This represents the peak count for winter, always in December.)
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