New Whoopers Migrate Through Chicago Wilderness

In late October, 16 young whooping cranes migrated south through Chicago Wilderness in a ritual as old as the postglacial wetlands they rely on. The modern twist for the birds, whose species was extirpated from the region more than a century ago, was that they were guided by four ultralight aircraft. In year two of a five-year program to reintroduce a migratory population of whooping cranes, the most endangered of crane species, to eastern North America, the five- to six-month-old captive-reared birds took off from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin on October 13 ("Welcome Back, Whoopers," CW, Spring '02). Their journey will take them 1,224 miles to the Chassahowitzka National Wildife Refuge in Florida. The birds made three stops in Illinois, in Ogle, LaSalle, and Kankakee Counties.

During the 56-mile flight from LaSalle County to Kankakee County, one bird took a close look at the Illinois River, to the crew's alarm. "When I crossed the river," said ultralight pilot Joe Duff, "my bird dropped down, and with all the housing, I thought, this is a bad place to lose a bird. But I just powered up and sped ahead, and it followed."

Once the birds reach the offshore refuge in Florida they will go through a "soft release," monitored and assisted when necessary by biologists stationed at the refuge throughout the winter. If all goes well, the whoopers will head back to Wisconsin on their own in the spring. Through the summer, all five yearling birds from the inaugural whooper flock congregated with sandhill cranes in central Wisconsin. On November 13, one of the whoopers flew south with about 20 sandhills, resting in Glacial Park in Ringwood, Illinois, for about an hour.

The reintroduction is conducted by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, a coalition of U.S. and Canadian conservation organizations and government wildlife agencies. For daily updates on the migration, and photographs, visit www.operationmigration.org.

— Karen Furnweger