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View Full Version : This is pretty cool - whooping cranes

eric_marsh
31-October-2008, 04:25 PM
This morning Janet and I were sitting on our patio drinking coffee when she noticed some large birds at the far end of our lake. We looked at them through binoculars and took some pictures while trying to figure out what they were. Doing a little research we discovered that they are whooping cranes, and endangered species. According to the graph below last year there were 266 cranes in the western flock. Since we had six birds that means that 2 1/4% of the entire western population of whooping cranes are in our yard.

Pretty cool!

http://homepage.mac.com/emarsh/.Pictures/WhoopingCranes1.jpg

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/images/graphics/crane/PopulationWFlock.jpg
Nicolas
31-October-2008, 04:44 PM
Nice!

That graph also makes me happy. 15 wasn't particularly much...
PraedSt
31-October-2008, 04:55 PM
Heh. The next bubble.
Good news though. Hope they breed on your patch, that would be nice.
Swift
31-October-2008, 04:59 PM
Very cool. I've seen them a couple of places, including Alaska, but never more than one or two at a time.
eric_marsh
31-October-2008, 05:08 PM
Heh. The next bubble.
Good news though. Hope they breed on your patch, that would be nice.

Actually I'd rather that they don't. I'd have to worry about protecting them and probably have all sort of unwanted interest from government types. Regardless, it's a moot point as they're gone already. Their winter nesting grounds are in the Aransas National Wildlife Preserve which is only about a hundred miles from us. They may make it there today. No doubt they were just stopping over on their trip south.
PraedSt
31-October-2008, 05:21 PM
Actually I'd rather that they don't. I'd have to worry about protecting them and probably have all sort of unwanted interest from government types...

Ah, a good point. Well, at least you could give them a pit-stop. Sounds like a win-win for both parties.
01101001
31-October-2008, 06:03 PM
How did they taste?
HenrikOlsen
31-October-2008, 06:16 PM
15 doesn't look good for genetic variation, unless they interbreed with other flocks they may be heading for a crash where a disease hits all of them without any immunes to carry on.
Trebuchet
31-October-2008, 08:10 PM
They nest (breed) in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada, just to be clear. They're heading to Aransas to winter. No danger of them nesting in your yard!

I think that 15 in the "western flock" was in fact the total wild population. There may have been a couple in zoos. It's probably as far down as a species can go and have any hope of coming back.
HenrikOlsen
01-November-2008, 12:15 AM
As far as I understand, cheetahs are so genetically similar that they must have been down to just 2 breeders more than once.
chrissy
01-November-2008, 12:35 AM
Glad to see it has risen.
Maybe there was a breeding plan set out and many released back into the wild, like what we had for our RED KITES (http://www.redkites.co.uk/).