CRYSTAL RIVER,, Fla., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Guided by ultralight aircraft, a small flock of endangered whooping cranes arrived at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Central Florida Monday after traveling about 1,250 miles behind an ultralight aircraft.
Seven birds started their first-ever migration to Florida at the Necedah National Wildlife Reserve in Wisconsin on Oct. 17.
Eight whooping cranes raised by humans in crane costumes began the trip, but only six birds flew the whole way.
One bird died en route and another was forced to travel by truck after flying out of formation the first day. The cranes are expected to return to Wisconsin on their own in the spring, taking about one week for the trip.
The slow progress this time is blamed on wind, rain, hail, snow, fog and heat, and the fact that ultralights cannot fly higher than 2,000 feet, making the birds work harder than they would flying at higher altitudes.
The goal of this migration training program is to establish a second flock of migrating whooping cranes to enhance the species' chances of survival. One flock of about 175 birds already migrates between Texas and Canada, but biologists are concerned this flock could be destroyed by a hurricane.
Between 700 to 1,400 whooping cranes existed worldwide in 1865. By 1942, the population had dwindled to only 22 birds living in Canada. Currently, there are about 400 whooping cranes.
A non-migratory flock of about 80 birds lives in Florida and there are roughly 150 in captivity. It is the rarest crane in the world. In Florida, the cranes will enjoy blue crabs, their favorite food.
Last year, a flock of 11 sandhill cranes, a similar but non-endangered species, migrated from Wisconsin to Florida behind an ultralight plane as an experiment to see if it would work, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources land public affairs manager Bob Manwell explained. As hoped, the sandhills returned to Wisconsin on their own this spring, landing within 100 yards of where they had started the southbound trip.
Adult whooping cranes are white with black legs, wingtips and facial markings. They can be as tall as 5 feet and have a wingspan of 8 feet. The bird's call can been heard for two miles.
This will not be the only guided migration south for the endangered cranes. The whooping crane recovery project is co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the International Crane Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state of Florida, and five other organizations. They plan to bring small groups to Florida in this manner for the next five years until the flock contains 125 birds, including 25 breeding pairs. The cost of the project is $1.3 million.
The training program for the cranes took about six months, with the birds learning to recognize the costumed people with the crane head puppets on their hands as their parents. Even while they were still in eggs, biologists played recordings of adult cranes and the sound of ultralight plane engines for the baby cranes so they would recognize these sounds after they hatched.
"We need to do this," biologist Dan Sprague of the U.S. Geological Survey said. "It's a need to fix something that's not only broken, but that we're responsible for breaking."
