Whoopers set for takeoff

If the Wisconsin weather is favorable, at sunrise today seven whooping cranes begin following an ultralight on a monthlong flight to Florida.

By ALEX LEARY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 15, 2001

On a frost-dusted marsh in Wisconsin, more than a thousand miles from their Citrus County destination, history hangs over a trio of pilots this morning as they attempt to guide whooping cranes on an extraordinary mission to save an endangered species.

Researchers have waited years for this day to arrive, cultivating a dream shared by few into an event that has attracted worldwide attention.

"We probably won't relax until we get to Florida," said Joe Duff, who spent the summer training the small flock to follow his 50-horsepower ultralight plane.

Unless the weather is poor, Duff, 51, will depart Necedah National Wildlife Refuge at sunrise and fly 20 miles with seven whoopers hugging the wings, as if trailing their mother.

The process will be repeated for a month or more until the flock reaches its winter home: Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, 31,000 acres of rich aquatic life and salt marshes in Citrus and Hernando.

"We figure if we can get them eating a lot of blue crabs, way out in that marsh habitat, where there are not a lot of bobcats, their chance for survival is real good," said Tom Stehn, whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Teaching the migration route

Exposed to the humming aircraft engine even before hatching in a Maryland laboratory in May, the cranes have never seen a human form -- only people in gray suits that resemble a beekeeper's costume.

"Our purpose is to teach these birds a migration route and yet avoid contact with humans," Duff explained. "They never hear a human voice, they never see a pop can, or plastic."

In July, the fledglings were taken to Necedah and enlisted in a rigorous boot camp. Duff led the cranes on longer and longer flights each day; last Friday they were in the air for 27 minutes.

Improbable as it seems, the technique works. Over 40 days last fall, Duff and his partners from Operation Migration, a Canadian nonprofit, guided 11 sandhill cranes to Citrus County.

The sandhills spent the winter here and returned to Wisconsin on their own, capping the longest human-led migration in history.

While the method is nearly identical this year, the stakes are much higher.

A mere 400 whoopers remain in North America, including the only existing migratory flock, which spends time between Canada and Texas.

The cranes, which grow to be 5 feet tall, learn how to migrate from older generations. But there are no migratory whoopers in the East.

Establishing a new population is critical, scientists say, because disease or hurricanes could wipe out the group in Texas.

They hope to build a flock of 125 birds by 2020. Doing so will require several migratory trips over the next decade.

Though human-assisted trips have proved results, researchers will plant newly hatched whoopers among adults who have already made the trip, the hope being that nature will take over.

For now, though, man is vital.

Scouting landing spots

Flying along with Duff will be Bill Lishman, the man who inspired the film Fly Away Home, and Deke Clark, a retired commercial airline pilot. Duff and Clark will alternate lead position.

"It's not really tiring but after an hour you need a break," Duff said. "It's like riding a motorcycle for an hour really, really precisely."

When one wants to take over, he'll flip on a sound system that broadcasts the call of an adult crane and the birds will gravitate to the source.

Lishman, meanwhile, trails in a more powerful plane that allows him to charge ahead and scout landing spots, to make sure there are no people around.

He also can track cranes that stray from the flock and inform the ground crew, traveling in a caravan of RVs and trucks, of their location.

Many of the same landing spots used last fall will be used. They are remote areas in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

Though the crane team had enthusiastic response from landowners, the project hinged on approval from the 20 Eastern states in the so-called flyway zone.

The Fish and Wildlife Service also had to draft a federal rule that would relax regulation of the species during the project.

The resulting "nonessential, experimental" designation means hunters who accidentally kill a crane will not be prosecuted under the Endangered Species Act.

The rule, endorsed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who said the project could provide a blueprint for future recovery efforts of endangered animals, was published in the Federal Register in June.

"It's kind of a green light," Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge manager Jim Kraus said at the time. "All we need now is some cooperation with the birds."

'A feeling of wildness'

Looking at photographs of the young cranes -- a collection is at www.bringbackthecranes.com -- it is amazing how far they have come in four months.

One shows a fuzzy brown, orange-beaked baby snuggling next to a puppet of an adult crane.

In another, the puppet, slipped over a researcher's hand, is showing a baby how to eat.

The fledgling cranes are following an ultralight around a circle in a third photograph. The pilot is hanging the puppet over the side.

Now the cranes are mostly white and have black-tipped wings and a red head. They are elegant and emotive.

"When you see a whooping crane -- 5 feet tall and hollering at you with that call that can go 2 miles -- it's a very stirring experience," said Stehn, the Fish and Wildlife Service official.

"It gives you such a feeling of wildness."

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