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A group of whooping cranes is expected to complete a journey to Citrus County today, part of a bold attempt to save the rare bird.
By ALEX LEARY
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 3, 2001
CHASSAHOWITZKA -- In the movie Fly Away Home, a 13-year-old girl in Canada rears a flock of orphaned geese, then uses an ultralight aircraft to guide them to North Carolina for the winter.
Quixotic as that may seem, the script is unfolding this morning over Florida. In this case, however, the stakes are considerably higher.
As you read this, six whooping cranes are trying to complete the last leg of a 1,217-mile migration from Wisconsin, a bold and far-flung attempt to save one of the world's rarest birds.
Weather permitting, the cranes will depart Levy County at dawn and take wing behind a yellow-bellied ultralight piloted by 52-year-old Canadian Joe Duff.
They will fly about 25 miles, buzzing network TV cameras and squinting onlookers near Crystal River Mall. Later, they will head to the salt marshes of Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Citrus County.
If the experiment works, the cranes will spend the winter, then return to Wisconsin on their own in the spring. Researchers plan to fly more whoopers down over several years, hoping for 25 nesting pairs, or 125 birds, by 2020.
That may not seem like a lot, but North America is home to fewer than 400 whooping cranes. The species has not migrated in the eastern United States in a century.
"They watched the coming of man, they watched our wars, the draining of the wetlands. It's a real honor being able to put them back," said Duff, who in 1993 helped Bill Lishman, the inspiration for Fly Away Home, lead 18 Canada geese to Virginia.
"Prior to that," Duff said, "people thought we were crazy, that you should never mix birds and machines together."
Not only have researchers dispelled that notion, they have managed to keep the birds wild. In a test flight last fall, using virtually the same route, they guided 11 sandhill cranes to Citrus.
Far more abundant than whoopers, the surrogate cranes spent the winter in Crystal River, and most of them returned to Wisconsin. In November, the same birds headed south; some, equipped with radio transmitters, were seen in Tennessee last week.
The whooping cranes and their leaders began the 48-day odyssey on Oct. 17 and have overcome high wind, fog, smoke, even death. Terrorism delayed training when the government banned flying for a week after Sept. 11, and organizers had to modify part of the route to stay clear of nuclear power plants.
Against all that, the dream refused to fade. "You've got to pinch yourself every once in a while and say 'Is this really happening?' " Lishman said.
Getting whooping cranes to Florida is a major accomplishment, certainly, but the population remains precariously low.
"The rule is you need 1,000 individuals to be a step away from danger," said Tom Stehn, whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The only existing migratory flock, which spends time in Canada and Texas, is vulnerable to disease or catastrophic events, such as hurricanes or oil spills. "We felt having 1,000 birds in one place is extremely risky," Stehn said.
Whooping cranes were never abundant, numbering between 700 and 1,400 in the mid 1800s. Unregulated hunting and loss of habitat caused the population to plunge to 15 by 1941.
Protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, whooping cranes have emerged as an icon of that legislation, with the restoration rivaling the effort to save the bald eagle.
Cranes head south each fall as a matter of survival because their wetland roosts freeze and food is scarce.
While many bird species have an acute homing instinct, cranes must rely on older generations to show them the way. But there are no migratory whoopers east of the Mississippi, only a non-migratory flock in Kissimmee, so this knowledge is lost.
Along came Lishman, 62, who literally flew into the idea of using ultralights, which resemble hang gliders with tiny engines.
One morning in September 1985, the charismatic sculptor with a penchant for flying was buzzing around his home in Blackstock, Ontario, when he came upon a field of ducks.
"All of a sudden they rose up. They couldn't outfly me and I couldn't outfly them so I just cruised along with them," he recalled. "It was mind-blowing."
Lishman knew a man who had taught geese to fly behind a boat and decided to learn more about how birds think, turning to the groundbreaking research of Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz.
In the 1930s, the Austrian scientist recognized that certain birds form a parental bond with the first nurturing object they see upon hatching. Lorenz called the social phenomenon imprinting.
After two unsuccessful attempts, Lishman was able to lead 12 Canada geese on short trips in 1988. The ultralight was perfect because it could fly slow enough to lead the cranes without stalling. Then came the 1993 flight to Virginia, which captivated millions of television viewers. The experiment was repeated in 1994 and 1995, the year Fly Away Home, starring Jeff Daniels, was filmed.
Despite this success, some remained skeptical. "I was very dubious whether it would work with cranes," said Stehn, the whooping crane coordinator. "But I said, 'Let's give it a try. What do we have to lose?' "
Last fall's flight with sandhill cranes erased much of that doubt, even if there is some lingering mystery. No one is exactly sure how the sandhills knew how to return to Wisconsin in the spring after learning the migration route only once.
"It may be that they can identify landmarks. Plus they have a built-in compass, they know north from south," said biologist Richard Urbanek, who is tracking the sandhills. "Some people think they can pick up magnetic fields. There are all kinds of theories."
Like the sandhills, the whooping cranes, raised at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, were exposed to the sound of an ultralight engine before hatching.
The cranes have never seen a plain human, only people in white costumes that resemble a beekeeper's uniform. Duff and the other pilots are fully draped as they fly the ultralights, equipped with sound systems that project the call of an adult whooper. The pilots and handlers on the ground do not speak when around the cranes.
Biologist Dan Sprague taught the chicks how to eat with a crane puppet, dipping the beak into a food dish. In Chassahowitzka, the puppet will be used to show how to crack the shells of blue crabs.
On July 10, 10 baby whoopers were shipped to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge for more intensive training. Duff and another pilot, Deke Clark, led them on longer flights each day in order to build their muscles for migration.
At 5 feet, an adult whooping crane is the largest bird in North America and one of the most stunning -- with 7-foot, black-tipped wingspans and a patch of red on its head.
Stunning, but fragile. One of the cranes was overcome with stress and died as it was fitted for a radio transmitter. Another was too weak to make the trip and was sent to a zoo in New Orleans.
A third died during the migration, in Wisconsin, after it flew into a power line during a nighttime storm that blew the cover off the pen.
"It was a big loss," Sprague said. "This was a bird I watched grow up and spent a lot of time with. I get pretty attached, but I try to step back and say this is a scientific experiment."
That left seven whoopers, but only six fly. One, a male known as No. 4, was injured during training and tended to drop out of formation. Fearing his behavior would rub off on the others, scientists removed No. 4 from the flight.
He now rides in the back of a truck and will be released in Chassahowitzka, the hope being he will migrate back to Wisconsin in the spring with the others.
The October departure was delayed several days because of poor flying conditions. High winds persisted and by the end of the month, the cranes had traveled only 255 miles. The death of the bird in Wisconsin added to frustration.
"There were times when you wondered whether it was going to happen," Duff said. "We had so far to go and we were making so little time."
November provided the break the crew needed. With clear, cool conditions, they hopscotched through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.
Jimmy Carter dropped by one of the Georgia landing sites to offer praise and $1,000. With a cost of $1.3-million, the restoration project draws half its financing from private sources. The rest comes from federal and state sources.
"He said he's gone through about 20 countries and this was the probably the most moving moment in his birding career," Duff recalled.
Nov. 24 marked a milestone as the cranes crossed into Florida, making a 38-mile trip from Cook County, Ga. They almost never made it.
Somewhere near Valdosta, Ga., a thick layer of fog made flying extremely dangerous and the pilots scrambled to find a suitable landing spot.
If they got too close to homes, the entire mission could be compromised by curious visitors. Researchers have taken great pains to minimize human contact -- hence the white costumes and ban against speaking -- so the cranes will stay clear of people they may encounter in the wild.
Finally, Duff spotted a freshly harvested cotton field and made a rough landing. After more than an hour, the fog lifted and so did the ultralights.
"We could use a break and God knows we deserve one," Duff wrote in a journal maintained at www.operationmigration.org. "But if he gives it to us or not, we are still bringing these birds to Florida!"
The adult whooping crane (Grus americana) is white with black wingtips, black legs and feet, black facial markings, and has a bare patch of red skin on its head. Standing up to 5 feet tall with a 7- to 8-foot wingspan, the whooping crane is the tallest bird in North America. Males average 16 pounds and females 14 pounds.
The whooping crane's name was inspired by its loud, distinctive call, audible up to 2 miles away. This bugle is created by resonance in the bird's 5-foot-long trachea, half of which is looped within the keel of the breastbone. Cranes call to communicate danger, to defend territory and to reinforce pair bonds.
Biologists estimate that between 700 and 1,400 whooping cranes were alive in 1865. Their numbers began to dwindle as people expanded west, taking over nesting habitats. Unrestricted hunting played a role, too. Today there are about 400.
Whooping cranes mate for life and may live up to 25 years or more in the wild. Females lay two eggs and both parents take turns incubating eggs for a period of 29 to 30 days. Although both eggs may hatch, usually only one chick survives the first few months to reach fledging age.
-- Source: International Crane Foundation