10-8-13 whooping cranes annual migration to florida

Whooping Cranes are once again on the move as eight left last week to begin their aircraft-led migration to Florida.  The birds left Wednesday from the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area in Green Lake County and will travel to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) along Florida’s Gulf Coast.  CEO of Operation Migration and leader of the ultralight team, Joe Duff, says this is the 13^th group of birds to take part in the project led by the Whooping Crain Eastern Partnership (WCEP).  Duff says the target is to arrive in Florida before Christmas.  In addition to the eight cranes being led south by ultralights, biologists from WCEP partner, the International Crane Foundation, are currently rearing nine whooping crane chicks at the Horicon NWR. The birds will be released later this fall in the company of older cranes from whom the young birds will learn the migration route south. This is the ninth year WCEP has used this Release method.  Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 600 birds in existence, approximately 445 of them in the wild.