Back from the Brink
The comeback of the whooping crane is one of conservation’s most wonderful and endearing stories. Down to a startling 21 birds by the late 1940s, the population - both wild and captive - is now over 750. It was humans that caused the decline but it was also humans that managed through sheer persistence, creativity, and determination to bring back this majestic bird.
Whooping cranes are the tallest flying birds in North America. They stand almost 5 feet tall, have a wing span of over 7 feet and weigh about 13 - 16 pounds. They are wetland birds that winter in the southeastern U.S. and summer in the north. When alarmed, the whooping cranes cry out – a single note that travels across the grasslands and ponds and lingers in the air, alerting other cranes as far as two miles away. This tremendous noise is made possible by a trachea that is coiled like a French horn. If you were to stretch it out flat, it would measure more than five feet in length.
Much of the credit of saving these birds goes to Robert Porter Allen who was hired by the Audubon Society in the 1940s to track and study the whooping cranes. These birds migrate thousands of miles each year so Allen’s work took him from Texas to Alaska and western Canada and back for 39 months. It was arduous, he admits in his journals, but never dull.
By the 1960’s, scientists had learned a lot about these birds and were working diligently to preserve the species. Many birds were kept in captivity and the San Antonio Zoo was particularly passionate about this project . When a captive pair successfully produced a healthy chick called “Tex,” there was much celebration. Whooping crane chicks, like many other birds, will imprint on the first things they see after hatching. This was true of Tex who first saw humans and from that moment forward, thought she WAS human. At a time when scientists were desperate for cranes to breed in captivity, this aversion to her own species was devastating.
Tex finally ended up with Dr. George Archibald at the newly formed International Crane Foundation. As soon as she saw Dr. Archibald, Tex fell in love. In his dedication to the cause, Dr. Archibald learned the whooping crane mating dance and every morning he and Tex would walk together to an enclosure where they would both leap and swoop and throw sticks. His efforts were finally rewarded when Tex became sexually responsive and handlers were able to artificially inseminate her. The result of these heroic efforts was a healthy chick named “Gee Whiz,” which eventually became one of the most important breeders in the program.
The International Crane Foundation has a wonderful video of Dr. Archibald’s amazing work that you can see here. George and Tex.
Equally impressive is the story of how dedicated aviators helped the cranes learn to fly their long and complicated migration route. Historically, chicks learned the migration route from their parents but with the loss of the flock, there was also loss of the route. The solution was to find a new protected route from Wisconsin to Florida and to teach the chicks, using ultralight aircraft, how to fly it. The 1200 mile journey was done at an average pace of 35 miles per hour. Astoundingly, it worked and took only one flight for the birds to learn the route. In the spring, the birds were able to fly it on their own.
Robert Porter Allen wrote in his report of September 30, 1950, “When you sit crouched in a blind and watch an adult whooper stride close by you….you feel the presence of a strength and of a stubborn will to survive that is one of the vital intangibles of the entire situation. Certainly it cannot be overlooked. We have a strong conviction that the whooping crane will keep his part of the bargain and will fight for survival every inch of the way. What are we going to do to help? Here, in this report, is the challenge, here is the job that must be done.”
Allen’s words are particularly significant today as we face unprecedented environmental challenges. But, today, as then, determination, creativity, and persistence will bring results. The question remains, what are we going to do to help the wild things that share our planet? That is the challenge, that is the job that must be done.