Each year, Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) and Parks Canada staff conduct aerial surveys over the extensive wetlands of Wood Buffalo National Park, (WBNP) that the cranes nest in and call home for the summer. These surveys occur at the end of May for the purpose of locating nests and then again in late July to count the number of chicks fledged.
Parks Canada and CWS were in the air again this past Spring and late summer of 2022 searching for whooping crane nests and crane chicks amongst the extensive wetlands of the park. Water levels on the nesting territory were higher than normal for the 2022 whooping crane nesting season. However, park and wildlife officials were still able to observe 96 nests during their spring nesting survey. 13 of those nests were found outside of the boundary of WBNP and 26 nests were outside of existing identified critical habitat (range expansion).
61 Colts will make their first migration
Photo: courtesy of Parks Canada and John McKinnon
During the summer, 61 colts were counted during the fledgling survey. Of the 61 counted, 11 families were observed having 2 colts. So if you see a higher number of “twins” wintering with their parents in Texas this year, you’ll know why.
CWS and Parks Canada cooperate to survey the Aransas Wood Buffalo breeding population. Annual monitoring of nests and fledgling numbers, estimates of the breeding population size and annual reproductive success, respectively, have been conducted in WBNP since 1966 via aerial surveys. Record numbers of nests (nearing 100) have been recorded in recent years. The long term 20-year average of fledgling survival is 0.49 fledglings per nest (so 2022 was a very good year compared to the average in terms of nest and fledgling success).
***** 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.
Whooping Crane at Rowe Sanctuary during the 2020 spring migration. Click to enlarge.
A few of the birds in the world’s only remaining wild population of Whooping Cranes have begun their annual spring migration back to their nesting grounds at Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada. The others will soon follow. They are repeating an event that has been going on for thousands of years. Following good conditions during the winter season on their Aransas National Wildlife Refuge winter grounds, the Whoopers appear to be in healthy condition. So, as the remaining Whoopers join the early birds and depart on their 2,500 mile migration to their nesting grounds there is hope for a successful reproduction and nesting season.
Traveling in small groups the Whoopers are expected to begin arriving at their nesting grounds during late April and May.
Friends of the Wild Whoopers is asking the public to report any Whooping Cranes they see along rivers, wetlands and fields. Report your observations to the wildlife agency in your state.
Whooping Crane current and former range and migration corridors. Click to enlarge.
If you should observe a whooping crane as they migrate along the Central Flyway, please report them to the proper agencies. We have compiled a list of agencies and contact information below.
Canadian reports
Any sightings of Whooping Cranes in Canada:
Whooping Crane Hotline is 306-975-5595. That will get you to Wildlife Biologist John Conkin. Leave a detailed message for a callback.
Montana reports
Allison Begley
MT Fish, Wildlife, & Parks
1420 East Sixth Avenue
Helena, MT 59620
abegley@mt.gov
(406) 444-3370
Jim Hansen
MT Fish, Wildlife, & Parks
2300 Lake Elmo Drive
Billings, MT 59105
jihansen@mt.gov
(406) 247-2957
North Dakota
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices at Lostwood, (701-848-2466)
Audubon, (701-442-5474)
National wildlife refuges
North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck, (701-328-6300) or to local game wardens
South Dakota
Eileen Dowd Stukel: Eileen.dowdstukel@state.sd.us
Casey Heimerl: Casey.heimerl@state.sd.us
Natalie Gates: Natalie_Gates@fws.gov
Jessica Dowler: Jessica_Dowler@fws.gov
Nebraska
Nebraska Game and Parks (402-471-0641)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (308-379-5562)
The Crane Trust’s Whooper Watch hotline (888-399-2824)
Emails may be submitted to joel.jorgensen@nebraska.gov
Kansas
Jason Wagner
jason.wagner@ks.gov
(620-793-3066)
Ed Miller
ed.miller@ks.gov
(620-331-6820)
Whooping Crane sightings at or near Quivira NWR should be reported to:
Quivira National Wildlife Refuge
620-486-2393
They can also be reported to this email: quivira@fws.gov
Matt Fullerton
Endangered Species Biologist
(580-571-5820)
Mark Howery
Wildlife Diversity Biologist
(405-990-7259)
Texas
Texas Whooper Watch also has a project in I-Naturalist that is now fully functional. You can find it here. You can report sightings directly in I-Naturalist via your Smart Phone. This allows you to easily provide photo verification and your location.
If you are not a smart phone app user, you can still report via email: whoopingcranes@tpwd.state.tx.us or phone: (512-389-999). Please note that our primary interest is in reports from outside the core wintering range.
Do not disturb and why reporting is important
Should you see a whooping crane during migration, please do not get close or disturb it. Keep your distance and make a note of date, time, location, and what the whooping crane is doing. If the whooping crane is wearing bands or a transmitter, please note the color(s) and what leg(s) the bands are on.
You may wonder why the wild life agencies are asking for these sightings to be reported. The reports are very helpful in gathering data and information on when and where the whooping cranes stopover, what type of habitat they are choosing, and how many there are.
With just over 500 wild whooping cranes migrating along the Central Flyway, odds are low of seeing a wild whooping crane. However, FOTWW hopes that someone reading this article will be one of the lucky few. If you are, please report your sighting so that these agencies and other conservation groups, including FOTWW can continue helping these magnificent cranes.
friendsofthewildwhoopers.org
***** 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.
This summer has been another exciting and engaging one for Wood Buffalo National Park and all partners involved in whooping crane research and monitoring. Even with COVID-19 realities and mitigations across boundaries, conservation collaboration continues unimpeded. Innovation and adaptation have been the story of successful efforts to date.
What the Crane Spring Monitoring looked like
Each year, Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) and Parks Canada staff conduct aerial surveys over the extensive wetlands that the cranes nest in and call home for the summer. These surveys occur at the end of May for the purpose of locating nests and then again in late July to count the number of chicks fledged. COVID 19 prevented surveys from taking place at all in 2020 and in 2021 CWS was still unable to join Parks staff on the survey, but Park staff conducted surveys in both May and August and the results are positive.
Enter Citizen Science
As Whooping Crane nesting areas expand to regions outside of Wood Buffalo National Park and begin to cover a wider area, new techniques in monitoring are needed. This past summer, CWS, the Calgary Zoo and Parks Canada launched a new crowdsourcing project to test the viability of using satellite photos to find Whooping Crane nesting sites. This was trialed in 2020 and launched on a wider scale pilot in 2021. Working through Zooniverse (the world’s largest citizen science platform!) we launched a virtual volunteering project with people from around the world helping detect several new nesting locations that were not previously known to biologists.
By the numbers:
• 2095 citizen scientists
• 59,038 images
• 102 nests identified, including 4 new nests
Parks Canada was back in the air again this August, searching for chicks and cranes amongst the extensive wetlands of the park. During this time, staff return to observe the nesting sites again and to count the number of chicks that can be seen. During helicopter surveys, at least 50 chicks were seen from the air. But the process of counting chicks amongst the thick wetlands of Wood Buffalo is far from perfect, and actual survival rate may be higher. At this time of year, the chicks are nearing the strength and ability to fly on their own. By the end of August or early September, they will be ready to begin the long flight down to Aransas!
The results:
This Whooping Crane population, the only self-sustaining one in North America, has seen a steady increase in recent years and now has as many as 500 individuals flying from Wood Buffalo to Aransas, Texas every year. 2021 was a terrific summer and marks the first time since conservation actions to conserve Whooping Cranes began that over 100 nests in total were counted, with at least 50% of the crane nests yielding surviving Whooping Crane chicks seen during survey flights. Parks Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service are excited to continue seeing the species recover in the months and years ahead.
We still need help!
Work on the crowdsourcing of thousands of satellite photos is still underway and help is still needed to continue sifting through these images on Zooniverse. Virtual volunteers can still sign up to take part, so be sure to visit and signup: Help Us Look for Whooping Cranes.
It was a record year for the 2021 whooping crane nesting season at Wood Buffalo National Park, (WBNP). Park and wildlife officials were able to observe 102 nests during their spring nesting survey. In 2017, a total of 98 nests were observed on the nesting grounds. The 102 nests were found using traditional flights and at least 4 of the nests were found using the crowdsourcing techniques, Zooniverse. This satelite imagery once perfected could become important with the surveys in the future and as of now is proving to be helpful when used along with the standard aerial surveys.
Zooniverse crowdsourcing project.
The crowdsourcing project is continuing and still needs virtual volunteers from near and far to sign into Zooniverse and take part! If you’ve not had a chance, take a few moments to sign on or share this link with others who might like to learn more and study the Whoopers from space!” https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/whcr-cr/whooping-cranes/classify?reload=0&workflow=18333
Conditions at Wood Buffalo NP
For the most part, Parks Canada operations have returned to fairly normal levels, with COVID-19 mitigations such as physical distancing and masking still in place. Park staff have been able to operate campgrounds, interpretive programs and hikes, the Fort Smith visitor centre and all the usual resource conservation work that comes with Canada’s biggest national park.
Overall it’s been a good summer—with not much extreme weather other than a really bizarre one week stretch which this area and western Canada almost never ever experiences. It’s been the worst forest fire season on record in some places, but the WBNP area of the NWT has been relatively mellow and fortunate this summer.
Become involved with counting nests
Want to get involved and be a citizen scientist and help out the biologists? Just go to Zooniverse. Once there, you can register, do a tutorial and once that is done, you are ready to begin your own nesting survey. Who wouldn’t want to participate doing that!
Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers.
***** 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.
