The whooping crane has a wingspan of over seven feet and is the tallest bird in North America. It's magnificent with its snowy white plumage, black "moustache" and naked red crowned head. Early in the morning, its distinctive bugle call echoes for miles through the wilderness.
Grus Americana, the whooping Crane, is extremely rare. In the early forties, when civilization encroached on nesting areas, the population dropped to a low of fifteen. Then the National Audubon Society started a concerted effort to save the birds.
"The Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, through its Director Mr. Fred Bard was instrumental in promoting the plight of the whooping cranes to Canadians," Brian Johns of Canadian Wildlife stated in an interview.
At that time, the nesting grounds of the whooping crane were unknown. They were "discovered by accident in a remote corner of Wood Buffalo Park in 1954," Mr. Johns continued.
Wood Buffalo is made up of several topographical areas: a 400 square kilometer Salt Plains, Pine Lake, (five spring-fed sinkholes) and the 4000 square kilometer Peace-Athabaska Delta. The whooping crane nesting area is 150 km. north of the Delta. The breeding area is in the Marl Ponds, just west of the town of Fort Smith.
Whooping cranes usually mate for life. After an elaborate courting ritual, the birds build a three-foot nest and the female lays two eggs. Both birds take turns incubating them. Brian Johns, whooping crane coordinator says: "The eggs are laid about three days apart, but incubation starts immediately so the eggs will hatch about two days apart."
Mr. Johns explains this interval allows the first chick to gain strength before the second chick hatches. The first chick is, therefore, dominant. This puts stress on the second chick and it sometimes does not survive.
"In addition," Mr. Johns continues," A period of cool, wet weather shortly after hatching, sometimes causes the death of one of the chicks, usually the younger."
The nest is built over water or on a small island. This gives the chicks a better chance of evading predators. The young birds can swim as soon as they hatch, but can't fly until they're 80 to 90 days old.
Aransas NWR
In the fall, whooping cranes migrate to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Corpus Christi, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, a trek of twenty-five hundred miles. During the migration, the birds stop for several weeks to fatten up on waste grain in the stubble fields of southern Saskatchewan.
"Whoopers arrive at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast in late October and leave in mid-April," says Wendee Holtcamp, a US based freelance writer who has toured the refuge. She goes on to explain that Aransas NWR is a peninsular 70,504-acre refuge, with scattered blackjack oaks inland and tidal ponds along the coast -- brackish water intersected by fingers of salt-tolerant grasses and other vegetation. The cranes spread out within the wetland vegetation, feeding on the abundant clams and crabs.
"Visitors can follow a paved road tour, hike along several trails, visit an Interpretive Center, view whoopers from a 40-foot observation tower, or take a commercial boat tour to spot whooping cranes and other shorebirds in their tidal habitat," Wendee states.
The biggest factor leading to the near extinction of whooping cranes has been man's encroachment on their natural habitat. Air pollution, acid rain, water pollution and deforestation have all taken their toll and every year, several birds die in collisions with power lines despite attempts to mark these sites.
Canadian Wildlife Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife are cooperating in an effort to preserve these beautiful birds. Wood Buffalo Park and Aransas Wildlife Refuge are under government protection, as is the migration route. Anyone caught killing or molesting the whooping cranes faces stiff penalties. Still some birds are killed. Brian Johns reports that in 1990/91 three birds were killed by hunters.
Even in Aransas, whooping cranes are not safe. Commercial barges plying the waters of the Gulf of Mexico are a constant threat. An oil or chemical spill could spell disaster.
Wildlife officials are always trying new means to increase the whooping crane population. At the Calgary zoo in Alberta and in Wisconsin and Maryland, biologists are attempting to raise whoopers in captivity. The eggs are incubated by whooping cranes, sandhill cranes, and sometimes by artificial means.
Thanks to the efforts of the Departments of Wildlife from both sides of the border and the many citizens who donate time and money, whooping cranes now have a chance for survival. The world population of the birds now stands at 260 wild and 104 captive birds for a total of 364, quite a rise from fifteen in the forties.
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