In what could be one of the most unique wildlife experiments in history, a special group of sandhill cranes are winging their way toward the Tennessee Valley. The novel part?
They are being led by pilots in ultralight aircraft!
On October 3rd, the ultralight aircraft took off from a national wildlife refuge in Wisconsin, leading a flock of sandhill cranes on an experimental migration that could pave the way for a potentially ambitious recovery effort involving similar flights with endangered whooping cranes.
The 13 sandhill crane chicks have been exposed to aircraft noise by researchers since hatching and reared in extreme isolation from humans at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. After undergoing months of specialized handling designed to get them accustomed to following the ultralight aircraft, the sandhill cranes have begun a journey through seven states that will take them to their wintering grounds at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife is considering the designation and reintroduction of an experimental migratory flock of whooping cranes into the eastern United States. If the sandhill crane migration study is successful this fall and the birds complete the journey to Florida and return on their own to Wisconsin in the spring of 2001, the same training procedures and route could be used with whooping crane chicks. If all goes as hoped, the study may lead to the re-establishment of a migratory population of whooping cranes in the eastern United States.
With just over 400 whooping cranes in existence, and with only one migratory flock in the wild, the establishment of a second migratory flock is vitally important to the survival and recovery of one of North America's most endangered species and the world's most endangered crane.
The path of the ultralights and sandhills will lead them through the Tennessee Valley. (See a MAP of the planned route.)
The sandhill cranes have been raised by humans in costumes that disguise the human form, using mechanical hand puppets designed to look like adult sandhill cranes. The birds have never seen the pilots of the ultralights out of costume. These restrictions on human contact will continue during the bird's migration and with the whooping cranes in the near future.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark says, "this is an extraordinarily difficult operation, and it's never been done before on this scale, or for such high stakes."
Whooping cranes were probably always rare, with a population estimated at 500 to 700 individuals in 1870. Nonetheless, they ranged across North America from Utah to the Atlantic Coast, breeding in central Canada and the northern U.S. and wintering from the Carolinas to Texas. As a consequence of unregulated hunting and specimen collection, human disturbance, and conversion of their primary nesting habitat to hay, pastureland, and grain production, the whooping crane population faced extinction by 1941, with only 21 birds remaining.
Today, after decades of captive breeding and the 1993 reintroduction of a nonmigratory population in central Florida, there are 411 whooping cranes in North America, with 266 of those birds in the wild. Of these, there is only one remaining migratory flock of 187 whooping cranes in the wild, migrating between Wood Buffalo National Park, Northwest Territories, Canada and Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in south Texas. The Endangered Species Act recovery plan for the whooping crane requires that a second flock of migratory birds be established, because the Texas flock remains vulnerable to oil spills, disease outbreaks, declining food resources on their wintering grounds, and collisions with power lines.
Daily updates, news releases, graphics migration tracking and partnership links are available online at this U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service web site..
There are some hunters who are concerned about the whooping crane efforts. They are already disturbed that the thousands of sandhill cranes that take up winter residence in and around the Blythes Ferry Wildlife Refuge & Management Area in Meigs County has harmed the area's intended purpose as a waterfowl refuge. The overwhelming majority of funding for the area comes from hunting and fishing license dollars, with absolutely no money coming from general taxes or non-game and recreational users.
Many hunters are concerned that if whooping cranes are ever established in the area, their status as a federal endangered species could have an even greater impact on the hunting opportunities in and around Blythes Ferry.
I'm one of those hunters, and trust me... I'm not alone.
I would have absolutely no right nor inclination to grouse if someone else was helping pay for it. But they're not.
Me, nor hundreds of other hunters, are getting what we ARE paying for, which is a waterfowl refuge where the primary purpose was to enhance duck and goose populations. Instead, the sandhills are eating the ducks and geese out of house and home.
If the professional wildlife managers and other users of Blythes Ferry decide it's more important for sandhills and whooping cranes, that's fine. I won't argue (very much). But please don't ask the hunters to be the only ones to foot the bill, as is the case right now.
Meanwhile, I'll be checking in on the ultralight sandhill migration via the web page. And when they find their way to the Tennessee Valley, I'd be proud and happy to see them fly by.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *Ross M. writes: I agree with everything you have said about the cranes in TN. I have always said if you want the habitat for the cranes that are a non-game species then the money should not have to come out of the hunters pockets. Why should the hunters have to pay the bills for such a project? We cannot hunt ducks on the Refuge and the cranes eat all of the food in less than a one month period. What happens if were to have a real cold winter? The ducks I guess would move out to seek other food unless they were to die from being too weak.