Seven whooping cranes flew over Georgia on Tuesday following an ultralight aircraft on a route to Florida and possibly a path to survival.
The birds flew 117 miles from Pike County, Ala., to Decatur County in south Georgia in a leg of a 61-day journey that started in Wisconsin. It is part 14-year effort to reestablish an eastern migratory whooping crane by guiding the birds to safer destinations.
“They are amazing birds and almost dinosaur-like in their appearance,” said Tom MacKenzie, a spokesman for the federal fish and wildlife service. “They can get to 5 feet tall and that is just a huge bird and extremely majestic in flight.”
About 540 of the nearly extinct birds live in the wild in North America, and a small flock sometimes winters in Georgia, MacKenzie said. They face the same enemy as they did when nearly wiped out a century ago: irresponsible gunmen.
“You can’t fix stupid and there are folks out there that shoot anything that moves,” MacKenzie said. “We’ve had some cranes that stay near Weiss Lake. We know that for sure because unfortunately several were shot there several years back. We’ve had a few shot in south Georgia and a couple of more by the Georgia-Alabama line. There have been others shot in Indiana.”
Currently 97 whooping cranes are flying from the Badger State toward the Sunshine State on their own, with the ultralight program being only one strategy of re-introducing the birds to the wild from a captive breeding population of about 140 birds, MacKenzie said.
Some are newbies that are put with established flocks. Louisiana just got 14 more birds to bolster its 24-member non-migratory population. Florida has tried to establish a stationary flock, but its numbers have dwindled to a dozen by four-legged and two-legged predators, MacKenzie said.
“Re-establishing the population like this is very hard to do, so they want to try different strategies to see what is effective,” he said.
The 2014 beginning migratory group faced hurdles along the way. Bad weather delayed their take off in Wisconsin and they ended up traveling by truck to Tennessee. On Tuesday, ultra-light pilots had a hard time getting the birds to follow them.
“This was a particularly wild morning,” said Heather Ray, outreach specialist. “It was kind of exciting for a while there with both ultralights circling the field for the cranes to follow. But it all worked out thanks to good planning by our pilots and thankfully cooperative whooping cranes.”
The birds started in the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area in Wisconsin on Oct. 10 and when they reach St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, these seven cranes will boost the eastern population of 54 males and 43 females. The objective is to build and sustain a flock with at least 25 breeding pairs.
Estimated distribution as of Dec. 4 included 40 whooping cranes in Indiana, 10 in Illinois, eight in Kentucky, six in Tennessee, 11 in Alabama, three in Georgia, six in Florida, 10 at unknown locations, one not recently reported, one long-term missing, and one suspected dead.
Currently the program is searching for a crane that disappeared near the St. Marks refuge in Wakulla County, Fla., on Thanksgiving night. Until his body is found, he is included in the population totals above.
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