Whooping crane
| Whooping Cranes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Whooping Cranes ( Grus americana ) |
||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Grus americana | ||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The whooping crane ( Grus americana ) is a bird in the family of the crane (Gruidae). Its breeding areas are in the wetlands of the prairies in central Canada. The still wild populations overwinter in Texas.
The whooping crane, one of the world's rarest birds, was originally native to the wetlands in the long-grass prairie in the Midwest of North America. Presumably it was never very numerous and the population never exceeded 10,000 individuals. As the prairies and wetlands were converted to farmland over the past few centuries, populations rapidly declined as the available habitat rapidly decreased and whooping cranes are sensitive to disturbance at the breeding site. They were also hunted so that by 1937 there were probably only forty individuals left and by 1941 there were only 15 or 16 birds that were breeding in a more remote part of Canada's boreal coniferous forests. Since then, great efforts have been made to save the whooping crane from extinction.
description
The adult birds have white plumage with a red area on the surface of the head and a long, dark beak. Like all cranes, they fly with their necks stretched out; the black hand wings contrast clearly with the otherwise pure white plumage. Not yet fully grown birds have pale brown plumage.
Whooping cranes forage in shallow water and fields. Their diet includes insects, water plants and aquatic invertebrates, as well as berries.
Breeding and migration area
There are currently three separate populations.
The original group consists of animals that have never lived in captivity. She spends the summer in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada , where the cranes nest and raise their young. In autumn they move to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, about 4,000 kilometers away . They hibernate there until they move back to Canada in the spring. Currently this group consists of 216 individuals.
Whooping cranes nest on the ground, mostly on raised bumps in the marshland. The female lays one to three eggs. The young birds are fed by both parent birds. Usually only one young bird survives per season.
Protective measures
The first step in preserving the whooping crane was to strictly protect the only remaining breeding area in Wood Buffalo National Park while protecting the wintering area in Aransas , Texas. Furthermore, attempts were made to prevent the cranes from being shot down by hunters. This initially stopped the population decline. Gradually the number of whooping cranes increased again.
However, it was clear very early on that a disaster such as the outbreak of an epidemic or a bad weather event could lead to the only remaining population being so weakened that the survival of the species would no longer be guaranteed. As early as 1967 it was therefore decided to breed whooping cranes in human care. In Wood Buffalo National Park, one egg was therefore removed from clutches with at least two eggs, brought to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in the US state of Maryland, where they were artificially hatched. This measure was intended to ensure that there would be a reservoir of whooping cranes should the only wild population be destroyed by an extreme event.
At the same time, conservation experts came to the conclusion that it would make most sense for the long-term survival of the whooping crane if a second population were established in another location. This seemed possible because whooping cranes are one of the relatively few migratory birds that learn their migration route. In 2001 this population was established. Like the original group, these birds are migratory birds. However, these birds have hatched and raised in captivity. They were trained with the help of a microlight to move to their summer home in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin and to return to their winter quarters at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in West Florida in the fall. In 2009 this newly established crane troop numbered eighty birds. The first young crane raised in the wild in Wisconsin followed its parent birds on the migration south to Florida in 2006.
In addition, a population has been created that does not migrate. In 1993 a second population of whooping cranes was introduced to central Florida . Every year around 20 captive and reared young birds are released into the wild there. In Florida, for example, they are trying to build a stable population of whooping cranes, but they are not migratory birds . Some of these birds have already reached adulthood and started nesting. The first young bird fledged here in 2002. This group currently consists of 74 individuals.
Today 382 adult cranes live in the wild, but only 250 of them are adult and capable of reproduction. Another 151 individuals live in captivity (as of 2009).
photos
Whooping Cranes
Young whooping crane
Whooping crane egg
literature
- Dominic Couzens : Rare Birds - Survivors, Evolution Losers and the Lost. Haupt Verlag, Bern 2011, ISBN 978-3-258-07629-4 .
- Jennifer S. Holland: King crane - America's largest bird, the whooping crane, is saved. For now . In: National Geographic , German edition, June 2010, pages 133-143
- Klaus Nigge : Whooping Crane - Images from the Wild . Texas A&M University Press, 2010. ISBN 1-60344-209-X
Web links
- Grus americana in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 6 of 2009.
- Whooping Crane Conservation Association
- Whooping crane photos by animal photographer Klaus Nigge