Whooping cranes to begin training

Bird watchers again will be in for a treat this fall as plans are being hatched for the annual fall whooping crane migration.

Seven whooping crane chicks arrived by private aircraft Wednesday at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin to begin conditioning for their trip to Florida. The endangered birds were hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., and will now be trained to follow ultralight aircraft across seven states, stopping at various locations along the flight path, including sites in Tennessee and Georgia.

“It can mean the difference between survival and nonsurvival of the species,” Operation Migration spokesperson Liz Condie said.

She said the team hopes to leave in early October, depending on weather conditions and the birds’ readiness. Ms. Condie said a tweaked migration route might make for a shorter trip, but that the cranes’ arrival date can vary from late November to mid-January.

“They’re very, very striking, just magnificent to look at,” Ms. Condie said, noting that they are North America’s largest bird.

In 2007, the bird’s population surpassed the 500 mark for the first time in more than a century. Ms. Condie said that as of Jan. 1 there are 529 in existence.

The project began in 2001, and there are now 72 wild, migrating cranes in eastern North America, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service statement. There also is a western migration route.

Whooping cranes normally learn the migration route from their parents, but this knowledge was lost as the birds neared extinction along the eastern migration route. Operation Migration and the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, a coalition of public and private organizations, help the remaining cranes find their way south.

In addition, biologists with the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will release some chicks with adults, from whom the young birds will learn the migration route.

The long journey leads the young endangered birds from Necedah to the Florida Gulf Coast, a total of about 1,285 miles.

The partnership announced in February that, for the first time, organizers will split the flock into two national wildlife refuges, in St. Marks and Chassahowitzka, both along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The announcement referred to the loss of 17 whooping cranes in a severe storm in February 2007.