This past summer in Wood Buffalo National Park, (WBNP), ten juvenile whooping cranes were trapped and fitted with solar-powered Cellular Tracking Platforms, (CTPs). Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey biologists trapped and banded 7 more cranes on their wintering grounds at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, (ANWR).
The new CTPs worn by the banded cranes will collect precise location data every half-hour, resulting in 48 data points collected daily. When the bird is within range of a cellular tower, location data points are transmitted to biologists who will use the information to track migration routes, stopover locations, and habitat use on the breeding grounds at WBNP and wintering grounds at ANWR. Biologists will a have better understanding of what habitat the whooping cranes prefer. All this will help wildlife agencies, and landowners to better manage coastal prairies and wetlands for whooping cranes and other resident wildlife.
To read more about this project, CTPs, and the procedure for capturing and banding the whooping cranes in this project, click here.
***** FOTWW’s mission is to help preserve and protect the Aransas/Wood Buffalo
population of wild whooping cranes and their habitat. *****
Friends of the Wild Whoopers is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
