Leader of the Flock - using ultralight aircraft to start a whooping crane flock

National Wildlife, August, 1998

The most promising Canadian reintroduction site, Johns says, is between Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg in south-central Manitoba near the town of Ashern. Whoopers nested in that area in the 1800s, a time when their principal breeding range followed a swath of grasslands from Illinois to Alberta and there may have been as many as 700 nesting pairs on the unbroken prairie.

Meanwhile, the recovery team's search for a new whooper wintering place has been narrowed to two locations: Marsh Island Wildlife Refuge, a state-owned preserve on the Louisiana coast; and Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, which lies north of Clearwater on Florida's west coast. The habitat at both locations resembles the Aransas refuge, with large expanses of salt marsh and an abundance of blue crabs, the whooping crane's favorite winter food.

The recovery team will finalize its plans at a late-summer meeting. But Stehn cautions that opposition from state game and fish departments could block the Manitoba project since waterfowl hunting areas would have to be closed to shooting while the majestic white birds are passing through. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is concerned that hunters might confuse the whoopers with snow geese, which also are big and white with black wingtips. "If the states are negative, it's not going to happen," Stehn says.

It's clear that efforts to assure the whooping crane's survival far into the new millenium have only just begun. If the ultralight plan crashes, for example, could a remote-controlled, larger-than-life flying model of a crane be used instead? Could young whoopers be trucked along the migration route and let out to fly every 50 miles to learn the lay of the land? Both ideas are waiting in the wings.

Stay tuned for the next episode.

Field Editor Les Line has watched cranes on four continents, including whoopers in Texas. Pocatello, Idaho, photographer and pilot Scott MacButch accompanied Clegg during last year's migration training.