Four whooping cranes from the Louisiana experimental flock have decided to make another sojourn to Texas this year according to Sara Zimorski, Wildlife Biologist, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department.
Biologist Zimorski explained to Friends of the Wild Whoopers (FOTWW), “These same birds made a similar trip last year . The 4 whoopers flew approximately 400 miles to visit on private lands with favorable wetland habitats. The birds are not all at the same location but are reasonably close to each other in Kaufman and Ellis counties.”
FOTWW contacted Dr. Wade Harrell, U.S. Whooping Crane Coordinator to get his take on the whooping crane movements. Dr. Harrell explained that, “I don’t think we completely know the implications yet. Right now, we are just going to see what they do. They are young birds (2012 cohorts), so aren’t of breeding age yet. I think the positive is that we are getting a better understanding of the breadth of habitat preferences that whoopers have, which seems to be quite broad. That is positive from a long-term recovery perspective. On the flip side, if the birds from the LA reintroduction are spread out across 2 states, this may make it more difficult to establish a breeding population given the number of birds we have available for releases right now.”
The Texas Farm Bureau interviewed Dr. Harrell today about the whooper movements and the following Podcast contains the full interview. Click on arrow to listen:
***** FOTWW’s mission is to protect the Aransas/Wood Buffalo population
of wild whooping cranes and their habitat. *****
