Page 9 - Walton Living

FOLLOW THE LEADER

Whooping Cranes and light-aircraft pilots share

special bond in the sky

By Christy Breedlove

s long as birds and man have existed, there has been a came glaring. No adult Whooping Cranes meant no migratory
fascination about birds. From the tiny bee hummingbird routes for the young.
Ato the imposing albatross, people have been captivated Whooping Cranes are precocial birds, which means shortly
by the sheer numbers, their colors and habitats. The pharaohs after hatching they are able to leave the nest and follow Mom
of Egypt revered the falcon as a royal protector, and Native and Dad. Precocial birds, like cranes, swans and geese learn to
Americans believe that birds hold a special place in their culture. migrate by following their parents. The route they use to reach
Each fall, every person from ancient Greece to now has looked their wintering grounds may have evolved over millions of years,
- but it is passed from one generation to the next. There are no
maps or signposts and when the last bird to use the route dies, so
to their summer homes. However, with the onslaught of pollu- too does that knowledge. Whooping Cranes were wiped out of
tion and the depletion of their habitats, it has become clear that the eastern half of North America in the 1870s.
people need to do more than just admire the birds. Something In response, Operation Migration opened its Canadian doors
had to be done to protect these endangered animals, particularly
the Whooping Crane. played a lead role in the reintroduction of endangered Whoop-
The Whooping Crane is a migratory bird that travels yearly ing Cranes into eastern North America. Its mission seems simple,
to breed. Just like human parents, the parent cranes teach their but in practice it is extremely complex. First, the cranes they
young the route of the migration. With the numbers of the worked with came from captive breeding centers. Pilots of ul-
crane decreasing to just 15 birds in the 1940s, the problem be- tra-light planes became substitute parents of sorts.