Storms kill flock of whooping cranes
"All 18 endangered young whooping cranes that were led south from Wisconsin last fall as part of a project to create a second migratory flock of the birds were killed in storms in Florida, a spokesman said."
Link: Full Article from the DailyComet
Link: More at Feb. 3rd Update from Operation Migration
Update #1: Whooper # 615 is missing - 17 confirmed.
Update #2: # 615 is found alive!
posted by Mike McDowell @ 4:17 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Oh Mike, this brings me such sadness this morning. I sponsored one mile for last year's migration in memory of my beloved Mom, who died of cancer this past summer. She and I loved the annual story of the crane migration. I am devastated, but at the same time, my commitment to Operation Migration is strengthened in the face of the reality of the "terrible beauty" of Mother Nature. Thank you, Mike, for your own enduring passion for the birds.
Meghan
Saw that on the news that 1 survived! Trying to think positive about the one surviving but still feel bad about the other 17!
Whose at fault here?
A. The low front that dipped into Florida causing high winds, thunderstorms and tornados.
Or
B. The researchers or handlers of these cranes who put them in a pen. The birds did not die from lightening strikes, they died because they were tossed around in a pen!!
If these cranes were left out as free roaming birds they would of survived vs, being rocked and slammed into the pen walls till they died.
My opinion is that the fault lies on the people who contained these birds rather than trusting the birds to use their instincts for survival as their ancesters have done for thousands of years.
Mike H.
Mike,
I wandered down a similar line of thought until I found out the reason the OM team places young cranes in pens. In the past, without pens, older whoopers from previous OM migrations would harass first year birds, eat their food and often caused the young cranes to disperse, subsequently exposing them to an increased risk of predation.
OM Field Journal entry January 27th, 2002:
“We learned last Tuesday that the remains of #10 had been located not far from the shallow creek where the bird was last seen on Jan. 10th. It was evident that we had lost a second bird to a Bobcat. A live trap had been placed between the pen site and the monitoring blind and on Jan. 18th a male cat was successfully trapped and relocated and while it is impossible to determine if this is the one responsible for the death of #10, it is still another Bobcat removed from the area.”
Placing the young cranes into an enclosure was deemed a necessary response to this problem, and we now know it may have to be reexamined and perhaps modified (OM said they would do so). When considering the enormous financial investment that goes into each bird (I once heard Joe Duff say $100,000.00 for each one) you can understand such a protectionist attitude for disallowing them to roam.
I think it’s reasonable to say that if more birds had found a way out of the pen as 615 did, a few more probably would have survived the storm. If we want to place blame, which I really don’t desire to do, let us do so on behavior and actions that necessitated a program like Operation Migration in the first place. If young roaming cranes were being picked off by predators, our critique would run along a similar line of placing blame. “Hey, why don’t you put them in an enclosure?”
Joe Duff is smart and committed, as is the rest of the OM team. I know they’ll do whatever it takes to reestablish a migratory flock in Florida. The loss of the young cranes is certainly a tragedy, but just a temporary setback in what has otherwise been an extremely successful reintroduction effort. I think OM is doing the best they can with what they have and that it remains a continual learning process. I still believe it’s a worthwhile endeavor and will continue to financially support it.
Mike
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