Whooping Crane
(Grus americana)
By: Aaron Sluss
Morphological Characteristics
• Tall bird- nearly 5 feet
• Adults white with red patch on
crown
• Long white neck
• Dark legs, dark pointed bill, and
black facial markings.
• In flight, black wingtips are visible
• Inner wing feathers droop over
the rump, called a" bustle” which
distinguishes cranes from herons
• Sexes alike
Other Characteristics
• Adults weigh between 12 and 15 pounds
• Wing span of nearly 8 feet
• Life Span of 22-24 yrs (wild)
• Gets its name from its
loud bugle-like trumpeting call
ker-loo ker-lee-loo
• http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/CraneNotes
1.html#8
• Heard from 2 miles
• Long trachea which coils twice
Inside the breast bone
Habitat
• Whoopers use a variety of habitats for
different times in the year.
• Breeding: mixed forest and wetlands
• Migration: croplands, marshes, and
submerged sandbars.
• Winter: bays and coastal marshes
Feeding Characteristics
• Wetlands: feed on clams, insects, fish,
frogs, crabs, and crayfish
• Uplands: feed on insects, snails, small
rodents, and acorns
Breeding
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•
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•
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Start pairing on wintering grounds
http://whoopers.usgs.gov/videos2.htm
Monogamous
Don’t start breeding until 4 or 5 years
breed in the large marshes adjacent to the
Sass, Klewi, Nyarling and Little Buffalo
Rivers
• each pair establishes a territory
of 1.5 square miles.
Nesting
• Did not know where they nested for years.
• Usually nest once, but will nest again if nest is
destroyed. May even skip a year.
• Nests can be floating or built up from the bottom
of the pond.
• Nests are usually built of bullrush, sedge or
cattail.
• Clutch size: 2-with one surviving
• Incubation: 1 month. Duties shared by parents
Recruitment
• Varies greatly from year to year
• Low as 12% to highs around 78%
• Average of about 45 per cent
Factors that affect recruitment
• the number of pairs actually nesting
• the number of viable eggs produced
• weather conditions at time of hatching and
during the ensuing weeks
• habitat conditions (water levels)
• abundance of food
• Predators (bobcats) (eagles)
Juveniles
• Cinnamon and white colored
• young remain with their parents for the
summer
• Parents feed them larval, or inactive,
forms of insects such as dragonflies,
damselflies, and also snails, clams,
leeches, and small fish.
• able to fly at about 90 days of age
Migration
• Usually in groups of less than 10.
• Make a 2600 mile trip from Wood Buffalo
National Park in Canada to the Aransas National
Wildlife Refuge in Texas.
• Starts trip in late September and arrives in mid
to late October to mid November
• Special flying method: uses an energy-efficient
combination of spiraling and gliding that allows it
to fly nonstop for incredible distances (up to 450
miles).
What Happened to the Whooper?
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Not that many to begin with.
Are susceptible to many factors during
migration. (Diseases, weather, and drought)
Delayed breeding maturity
 Two main factors that caused rapid decline:
1) man-made changes of habitat (esp. wetland losses)
2) hunting, and feather and egg collecting.
Recovery of the Whooper
• Migratory Bird treaty Act of 1918
• Wood Buffalo National Park est. in 1922
• In 1937, the Aransas National Wildlife
Refuge established.
Listed as a Threatened and Endangered
species in 1973.
Recovery Cont..
• Captive Breeding
• Difficult to do because of their sensitivity to
humans. (Imprinting)
• http://whoopers.usgs.gov/videos2.htm
• Remove the “extra egg”.
• Artificial insemination
• Foster parents
Flocks of the Past VS Today's
• Estimated that in
1870 there were
around 500-1400
birds
• Went to a low of 1520 in 1941
• As of 2000 282 in wild
and 106 in captivity
• More pandas than
whoopers
What must be done to continue
the success
• Establishment of another migratory flock
• Support of the Canadian public for the
management of whooper nests and eggs
• Publicity and hunter education
Preservation of wetlands along the cranes’
migration route
Any Questions??