October 30, 2009 — Forget about calling it Operation Migration. This year it should be called Operation Frustration.
Operation Migration launched its ninth southward journey on Oct. 16 - 10 days beyond the target departure date - with its experimental light-sport aircraft leading 20 young whooping cranes from Central Wisconsin to their wintering grounds in Florida.
As of Friday morning (October 30), the group had only traveled 26 miles from where they started - Wisconsin’s Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. Their route will take them through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia before the ultimate destination at St. Marks and Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuges along Florida's Gulf Coast.
The group has been hampered by rains and winds, as well as cranes that are not always cooperative.
Besides poor weather, the group also had to deal with persistent respiratory issues with one of the young whoopers, known as number 928. Reporter Heather Ray explains on the group’s field journal. “Several rounds of medications were administered but he simply did not respond…he simply could not fly any further than the length of the runway. There was simply too much scarring in his lungs, making it very difficult for him to breath.”
The group discussed several options, but in the end agreed the most humane was to euthanize him.
The project is led by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, an international coalition of public and private groups that is reintroducing this imperiled species in eastern North America. Once led south, the cranes are able to migrate on their own, without assistance, in following years.
The goal is to reintroduce 125 cranes, including 25 breeding pairs, at which point researchers believe the population would be self-sustaining. Known as the Eastern Migratory Population, these reintroduced birds currently number 77. Today, there are only about 500 birds in existence, with just 350 of them in the wild.
To follow blog posts from the team as they head south, including a Crane Cam mounted on an ultralight aircraft visit http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html. On completion of the migration, the CraneCam will be set up at Florida’s St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge to provide an unprecedented opportunity to watch the young whoopers as they mature over the winter.
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The young whooping cranes wait in a pen for weather to clear and begin a leg on their Florida trek.
Photo credit: Operation Migration
Whooping cranes follow an E-LSA to learn the migration route south to Florida. Photo credit: Operation Migration
Workers mask their human form so the young whooping cranes do not get used to humans.
Photo credit: Operation Migration
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