Whooping Crane (Grus Americana)
The Whooping Crane is among the most critically imperiled species in North American and was one the first species listed as Endangered in the United States in 1967. Only 16 individuals were known to exist in 1941; today there are over 350 individuals in the wild and approximately 150 in captivity. Whooping Cranes exist in the wild in 3 locations but only one is self-sustaining, the Aransas-Wood Buffalo National Park population, which nests in Wood Buffalo National Park and adjacent areas in northwestern Canada, and winters in coastal marshes in Texas at Aransas. There is also a small captive-raised, non-migratory population in central Florida, and a small migratory population of individuals introduced beginning in 2001 that migrate between Wisconsin and Florida in an eastern migratory population. These are the Whooping Cranes seen in Tennessee.
It is the distinctive call of the Whooping Crane that gives it its name. With an average height of 5 feet, the Whooping Crane is the tallest bird in North America. Males and females look very similar, with a long neck, long, thin black legs, and a white body with a tuft of feathers on the rump. The wing-tips are black and the top of the head and cheek are covered by red skin. Males are larger than females. Young birds are typically cinnamon-toned with some white, and lack the red on their head and face. In flight, the long neck extends forward and the straight legs trail behind. The wingspan is between 7 and 8 feet and they weigh between 14 and 17 pounds.
Whooping Cranes are omnivorous and eat a wide variety of plant and animal matter including mollusks, crustaceans, insects, fish, frogs, berries, and waste grain. They nest in productive wetland habitats and use a variety of wetland habitats, shallow lakes and lagoons, and grain fields during migration and in the winter.
Like all canes, Whooping Cranes maintain long-term pair bonds. Pairs form when the young birds are 2 to 3 years old and usually attempt their first nesting at age 4. During the breeding season, they occupy separate territories in shallow freshwater marshes and prairies, lay two eggs that are incubated by both adults for about one month, but rarely raise more than one chick that survives to migrate. The pair will stay together year round, and their young will migrate south with them after the breeding season.
The Whooping Cranes found in Tennessee are part of the exciting recovery effort to re-establishment a migratory flock of Whooping Crane in the eastern portion of their historical breeding range. The young cranes released in this effort come from captive Whooping Crane flocks in Maryland, Wisconsin, and Alberta. Eggs laid by these captive birds are hatched in incubators and the chicks are raised by people wearing costumes to prevent the chicks from imprinting on humans. In June, the chicks are transported to Wisconsin where they are trained to follow ultralight aircraft, which will lead them on their fall migration to wintering grounds in Florida. Every year since 2001, ultralight aircraft have led a class of young cranes on their first migration south from Wisconsin to Florida’s Gulf Coast. Each group has passed over or stopped in Tennessee.
Beginning in 2005 the ultralight-led migration has been supplemented with a second reintroduction technique called Direct Autumn Release. In this technique young captive raised cranes are released in small groups with wild whooping cranes, with the intent that they will learn the migration route from these older, more experienced birds.
Cranes released using both of these techniques have successfully made the return flight to their summering grounds in the north on their own the following spring.
A few Whooping Cranes regularly linger or spend the winter on or near the TWRA Hiwassee Refuge in Birchwood, TN in Meigs County. In the winter of 2007-2008 one pair spent the winter in a rural area on the Cumberland River within the city limits of Nashville and briefly returned the following winter.
Fun Facts:
• Fossilized remains of the Whooping Crane date back several million years.
• Evidence from the Pleistocene Epoch shows that Whooping Cranes were once scattered throughout a much wider geographic range, extending from central Canada to Mexico and from Utah to the Atlantic coast.
• Pairs form when the young birds are 2 to 3 years old. They usually attempt their first nesting at age 4, but are often not successful at raising a chick for several years. The pair will stay together year round, and their young will migrate south with them after the breeding season.
• The oldest known wild Whooping Crane was 28 years 4 months old. In captivity cranes live 35 to 40 years. In 1995 one captive 31-year-old male was still successfully breeding.
• When the weather is good and the winds favorable, a migrating Whooping Crane flies like a glider, on fixed wings. The bird spirals upwards (aided by thermal activity), glides down, dropping as low as 70 m above ground, and then begins spiraling upwards again. This spiraling and gliding, carried out when the cranes encounter suitable thermal updrafts, is energy-efficient and allows the cranes to fly nonstop for great distances.
• As warmer spring weather arrives, the Whooping Cranes perform their traditional mating rituals of dancing and whooping. The dancing intensifies until the cranes depart with their mate for the summering grounds, usually in mid-March.
For more information:
TWRA Watchable Wildlife
International Crane Foundation
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
