Tweeters,

The information provided by John Chapman on Whooping Cranes is
interesting, and some of it (number of cranes in various locations)
was new to me. However, I noticed two small errors.

One of the errors-- the reference to a former resident breeding
population in Florida-- has already been commented on and corrected by
Noel Wamer. However, there WAS formerly a non-migratory breeding
population of Whooping Cranes in southwestern Louisiana (Cameron and
Vermilion Parishes). The last of these birds disappeared during a
hurricane in 1950. I am not sure why the Whooping Crane recovery team
chose Florida rather than Louisiana to try to re-establish a
non-migratory Whooper population, but there must have been good
reasons, and I hope this effort is successful.

The other error is in John's description of the current breeding
range. If I am not mistaken, all or nearly all known breeding sites
are in the Northwest Territories of Canada, not in Alberta (although
admittedly very close to the Alberta border). The nesting area is
within Wood Buffalo National Park, which is mainly in Alberta, but the
cranes nest in the NWT portion of the park. Thus, they are truly
"north of 60" residents during the breeding season.

John did not mention the well-intentioned, but ill-conceived and
ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to establish a breeding Whooping
Crane population west of the Continental Divide. This consisted of
placing Whooping Crane eggs under nesting Sandhill Cranes at Grays
Lake NWR in southeastern Idaho, and using the Sandhills as "foster
parents". This effort began in 1975, and was finally abandoned in
1989, after 200 Whooping Crane eggs had been wasted. The fostered
Whoopers wintered with Sandhills in New Mexico and returned with the
Sandhills to Grays Lake and vicinity, but no successful Whooper
nesting ever occurred. In large measure, this was apparently because
the Whoopers "imprinted" on the Sandhill Crane foster parents, and/or
learned inappropriate breeding behavior from the Sandhills. The four
Whoopers mentioned by John as remaining in the "Rocky Mountains" are
probably survivors from this failed experiment.

A good online source of information on Whooping Cranes (there are
certainly others) is the Whooping Crane factsheet in the "Hinterland
Who's Who" series put out by the Canadian Wildlife Service. The URL is
www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/hww-fap/whooping/whoop.html . This factsheet was
prepared in 1993 by Ernie Kuyt, who for many years led the Canadian
research and recovery efforts on Whooping Cranes, although it is now a
little dated in terms of current numbers and status.

John-- do you have the URL for the "crane migration website" that
you mentioned? Thanks.

Sincerely,

Wayne C. Weber
114-525 Dalgleish Drive
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6E4
Phone: (250) 377-8665
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: ragweed at igc.org <ragweed at igc.org>
To: MBlanchrd at aol.com <MBlanchrd at aol.com>; TWEETERS at u.washington.edu
<TWEETERS at u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 9:10 AM
Subject: Re: State Birds & Whooping Crane status
>
>On a more serious note, the March 2000 EarthWatch Institute
>Journal has an article about the Whooping Crane restoration
>effort. They list the world status of the Whooping Crane, as
>of August 1999:
>
> 199 at Aransas NWR (including birds of the year)
> 4 "left in Rocky Mountains" (I did not find any other
> details on this)
> 70 in established non-migratory population in central Florida
> 70 at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel Maryland
> 36 at International Crane Foundation
> 23 at Calgary Zoo
> 10 at 4 other zoos
>
>Totals - 273 wild cranes, 139 captive.
>
>However, I visited the crane migration website and they listed
>only 164 or so that had made it to the nesting grounds in Alberta.
>The migration apparently does have a fair amount of mortality.
>
>The Florida population is being established as a hedge against
>anything happening to the migratory flock. I believe there was
>historically a wild non-migratory population in the area as well.
>It is doing OK, but suffers from relatively high predation by
>Bobcats, mainly on the newly released birds.
>
>Incidentally, I believe I saw a pair of Whoopers several years
>ago. It was on a trip to Glacier and then Yellowstone National
>Parks, somewhere in Wyoming, I think. It was before I was really
>seriously keeping a life list, and for some bizarre sick reason
>I didn't stop and confirm it. We were running late to our next
>campground or something, and there were several cars on the
>road behind us, on a 2-lane road with no real shoulder. Julia
>was driving, and I saw two giant birds down in a little dip in the
>hills. I thougt they were probably Sandhill Cranes, and it just
>didn't seem like we could really stop. Later I checked the field
>guide and decided they must have been Whoopers.
>
>I kick myself now for not stopping. There's a little too much
>doubt about my ID for me to put it on my life-list, and I suspect
>that it will be a long time before I see another one.
>
>John Chapman
>Seattle, Washington
>ragweed at igc.org
>