Every year about this time, Operation Migration gathers the young whooping cranes it has raised and departs on an epic journey: a 1,200-mile trip from central Wisconsin to the west coast of Florida.
The young cranes have never made the trip, so they must be shown the way. To this end, they have been trained to follow an ultralight aircraft as if it were their parent. The goal of the yearly flights is to establish a viable population of whooping cranes that use this eastern migration route. All other whooping cranes migrate between Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, TX and Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park.
Whooping cranes were in danger of extinction in the 1940's, when there were just 15 of them left. By 1999, it was estimated that there were over 180. Operation Migration was founded because it was imperative to establish a separate crane population in case disease or weather threatened the western one. By 2006, there were 60 whooping cranes in the eastern group. The cranes return to Wisconsin on their own the following spring.
Operation Migration maintains a daily field journal during the migration so you can see their progress. Check out their website, www.operationmigration.org, and their photo stream on Flickr for more on this grand experiment.
Via Flickr:
Brooke Pennypacker leading 9 of the 11 juvenile Whooping Cranes in the Class of 2010 from LaSalle to Livingston County, IL
Credit: Veronica Anderton
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