Whooping Cranes Rebounding in Texas

[Guest guest]

Whooping Cranes Rebounding in Texas

 

January 08, 2007 — By Lynn Brezosky, Associated Press

HARLINGEN, Texas -- Once down to about 15, the world's only naturally migrating

flock of whooping cranes has continued its comeback, now numbering a record 237

birds in wintering grounds along Texas' Gulf Coast.

 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Tom Stehn, who tracks the flock, said

45 cranes were born last year, including a rare seven sets of twins.

 

He credited the increase to mild weather at their nesting grounds in Wood

Buffalo National Park in northern Canada's boreal forest. There, the birds begin

their 2,500-mile migration route from their summering grounds to Texas.

 

" They avoided having that cold weather hit, that just-above-freezing and drizzle

that seems to kill the chicks, " he said.

 

Stehn flies at low altitudes over the 35-mile stretch of Texas coastline where

the birds feast on blue crab and wolfberries. The cranes tend to stay in family

groups in territories about a mile wide.

 

Stehn, who plots the groups on photocopied maps of the areas, counted 220 of the

endangered species in 2005.

 

Wildlife officials say the whooping crane, the tallest bird in North America,

illustrates how a concerted effort of legislation and public awareness can help

a species rebound.

 

While far from reaching the kind of numbers enjoyed by the gray whale and

American peregrine falcon on the Fish and Wildlife Service's list of recovered

species, the crane's numbers have slowly increased since counting began in 1938.

 

It took most of the 20th century to educate people about the whooping crane.

 

" People in the 1920s were really realizing how rare they really are, " Stehn

said, attributing the decline to habitat loss and hunting. " A lot of the early

whooping crane actions were to get the word out to sportsmen to make sure

hunting was no longer a factor in losses. Probably by the 1950s that message was

finally getting out. "

 

Government action also helped. A 1916 treaty between the United States and

Canada -- later expanded to include Mexico, Russia and Japan -- made it illegal

to shoot birds outside of an established hunting season.

 

Land for the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Corpus Christi, which covers

a large part of the whoopers' wintering grounds, was acquired in the 1930s to

protect water fowl.

 

The whooping crane was one of the first species listed under the Endangered

Species Act of 1973.

 

A nonprofit group is coordinating an effort to establish a second migrating

flock. Each fall, Operation Migration leads cranes from a Wisconsin refuge to

one in Florida using ultralight aircraft. The birds migrate back north on their

own in the spring.

 

Source: Associated Press

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain