Press release from Fish & Wildlife:

Eighth Group of Endangered Whooping Cranes Depart on Ultralight-guided Flight to Florida

  On October 17, 2008, Fourteen young whooping cranes began their
  ultralight-led migration from central Wisconsin’s Necedah National
  Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and traveled five miles. Wind and rain has
  grounded the cranes in Juneau County, Wisconsin, for the last three
  days.

  This is the eighth group of birds to take part in a landmark project led
  by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), an international
  coalition of public and private groups that is reintroducing this highly
  imperiled species in eastern North America, part of its historic range.
  There are now 68 whooping cranes in the wild in eastern North America
  thanks to WCEP’s efforts.

  The four ultralight aircraft and juvenile cranes will be following a new
  route this year, passing through Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky,
  Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia to reach the birds’ wintering habitats
  at Chassahowitzka and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuges along
  Florida’s Gulf Coast.

  “We are excited about the migration this year,” said Joe Duff, CEO of
  Operation Migration, the WCEP partner that leads the ultralight
  migration.  “The new migration route offers opportunities for increased
  outreach and conservation education.  Also, we know it will be safer,
  and we hope it will be faster.”

  The fourteen ultralight-led cranes will be split into two groups upon
  arrival in Florida–one group will winter at Chassahowitzka NWR and one
  group will spend the winter at St. Marks NWR.  The decision to split the
  birds comes after the loss in February 2007 of 17 of the 18 Class of
  2006 whooping cranes in a severe storm at Chassahowitzka NWR.  WCEP
  hopes the two separate wintering locations will help reduce the risk of
  another catastrophic loss.

  In addition to the 14 birds being led south by ultralights, biologists
  from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
  Service reared six whooping cranes at Necedah NWR.  The birds will be
  released in the company of older cranes from whom the young birds will
  learn the migration route.  This is the fourth year WCEP has used this
  Direct Autumn Release method, which supplements the ultralight
  migrations.

  Whooping cranes that take part in the ultralight and Direct Autumn
  Release reintroductions are hatched at the U.S. Geological Survey’s
  Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., and at the
  International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis.  Chicks are raised under
  a strict isolation protocol and to ensure the birds remain wild,
  handlers adhere to a no-talking rule and wear costumes designed to mask
  the human form.

  In 2001, project partner Operation Migration’s pilots led the first
  whooping crane chicks, conditioned to follow their ultralight aircraft
  surrogates, south from Necedah NWR to Chassahowitzka NWR.  Each
  subsequent year, WCEP biologists and pilots have conditioned and guided
  additional groups of juvenile cranes to Chassahowitzka NWR. Once led
  south, the cranes are able to migrate on their own, without assistance,
  in following years.

  In the spring and fall, project staff from the International Crane
  Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service track and monitor the
  released cranes in an effort to learn as much as possible about their
  unassisted journeys and the habitat choices they make both along the way
  and on their summering and wintering grounds.

  Most graduated classes of whooping cranes spend the summer in central
  Wisconsin, where they use areas on or near the Necedah NWR, as well as
  other public and private lands.

  Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today,
  there are only about 525 birds in existence, 375 of them in the wild.
  Aside from the 68 birds reintroduced by WCEP, the only other migrating
  population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in
  the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Aransas National
  Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast.  A non-migrating flock of
  approximately 35 birds lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee
  region.

  Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, live
  and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and
  aquatic plants. They are distinctive animals, standing five feet tall,
  with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.

  WCEP asks anyone who encounters a whooping crane in the wild to please
  give them the respect and distance they need. Do not approach birds on
  foot within 200 yards; try to remain in your vehicle; do not approach in
  a vehicle within 100 yards.  Also, please remain concealed and do not
  speak loudly enough that the birds can hear you.  Finally, do not
  trespass on private property in an attempt to view whooping cranes.

  Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership founding members are the
  International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration, Inc., Wisconsin
  Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
  U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National
  Wildlife Health Center, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the
  Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and the International
  Whooping Crane Recovery Team.

  Many other flyway states, provinces, private individuals and
  conservation groups have joined forces with and support WCEP by donating
  resources, funding and personnel. More than 60 percent of the project’s
  budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, public
  donations and corporate sponsors.

  A Wisconsin Whooping Crane Management Plan that describes project goals
  and management and monitoring strategies shared and implemented by the
  partners is online at:
  http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/birds/wcrane/wcraneplan.htm.

  For more information on the project, its partners and how you can help,
  visit the WCEP website at http:www//.bringbackthecranes.org.

                                   -WCEP-

  Joan A. Garland
  Education Outreach Coordinator

  International Crane Foundation
  E11376 Shady Lane Road/P.O. Box 447
  Baraboo, WI 53913-0447 USA
  608-356-9462 x142 / Cell: 608-381-1262