January 27, 2009 — A group of young whooping cranes led by ultralight planes to learn their migration route arrived at their final Florida wintering grounds, 88 days after taking off from Wisconsin.
The 1,285-mile trip had been plagued by poor weather conditions, which kept the birds and weight-shift trikes grounded for days at a time.
Seven birds led by the Operation Migration team arrived at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on January 23, after seven other whooping cranes arrived at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge on January 17.
The birds were divided into two groups after a storm last year killed the 2007 class.
Preliminary health checks performed on the St. Marks’ birds on January 25, led by Disney Animal Kingdom's Dr. Scott Terrell and his veterinary team, showed they were in excellent health, with health checks on the Chassahowitzka birds planned for later in the week.
But according to the Operation Migration Field Journal, it takes a few days for the whoopers to again trust their handlers, who wear costumes to disguise their human shape.
“The capture and handling necessary to perform the health checks inevitably 'freaks the birds out,'” wrote Linz Condie. “It takes them several days to get over it and for the costumes to regain their trust.”
That’s because one costumed handler holds the bird in the proper position while another checks the eyes, beak, nares, and throat before slipping a hood over its head. The birds tend to become calmer when they can’t see, and that allows the vets and banders to finish their tasks unhampered by the bulky costumes.
Once the birds are again well adjusted, they will be released to the wild, with staff at first providing them with fresh water and food to supplement what they forage for themselves. Staff will check up on the birds at least twice daily, giving the whoopers time to adjust and learn the skills they need to survive as wild birds before spring when they return to the north on their own.
The Operation Migration flight is part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership project, which is working to reintroduce a migratory flock of whooping cranes to the eastern United States. With the addition of these birds, they will be 87 migratory whooping cranes in the wild in the eastern migratory population.
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Seven whooping cranes completed their 1,285-mile trip to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida on January 23. Photo credit: Operation Migration
A pilot leads the “Chassahowitzka Seven” over Marion and Citrus counties on their final flight with the aircraft.
Photo credit: Operation Migration
The whoopers were trained to follow an ultralight as they learned the migration route. Photo credit: Operation Migration
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