40 Fun Facts About Whooping Crane

Whooping crane chicks raised in Wisconsin were taught to migrate to Florida by following what?

Ultralight aircraft flown by Operation Migration led 186 young birds south between 2001 and 2015, and the cranes then flew back north by themselves each spring.

Which North American record does the whooping crane, a white wader of the Texas coast, hold?

The whooping crane is the tallest bird on the continent at about five feet, yet this lean wader weighs only around 15 pounds.

How did George Archibald spend three years coaxing Tex, a captive whooping crane, to breed?

Dancing with her as a male crane would, Archibald walked and leapt beside Tex until artificial insemination finally gave her a single chick.

Costumed keepers feed whooping crane chicks using what, so the young birds never bond with people?

A hand puppet shaped like an adult's head and neck delivers the food and teaches the chicks to forage, so they grow up wary of humans.

Which shellfish do wintering whooping cranes rely on most in the salt marshes of the Texas coast?

Blue crabs made up as much as 90 percent of the birds' energy intake in two winters studied in the 1990s; clams and wild berries fill the gaps.

Besides whooping cranes, which grey bird is the only member of their family native to North America?

The sandhill crane is far more numerous, and whoopers sometimes join its flocks on migration through the Great Plains.

Whooping cranes are monogamous, but what does a bird usually do after its mate dies?

A widowed whooping crane finds a new partner, sometimes within only a few days, even though pairs otherwise stay together for life.

Which 1973 law, signed by Richard Nixon, listed the whooping crane among the first animals it protected?

The Endangered Species Act covered the whooping crane from the start, because the bird had already been listed as at risk under an earlier law in 1967.

Which 1996 film with Anna Paquin dramatised the bird-leading flights that later guided whooping cranes south?

Fly Away Home is based on Bill Lishman, who first guided a flock of geese south in 1993 and then co-founded the group that escorted the cranes.

Adult whooping cranes are white, but what colour is the plumage of a juvenile in its first summer?

Cinnamon brown feathers cover a young whooper until white ones start to show at about four months, and by its second summer it looks like an adult.

The only natural flock of whooping cranes nests in which national park, the largest in Canada?

Wood Buffalo is bigger than Switzerland, and the cranes' nesting marshes there were only located in 1954, after years of searching.

Which Texas refuge on the Gulf Coast is the winter base of the last natural whooping crane flock?

Aransas has sheltered the flock since it shrank to about 15 birds in 1941, and every whooping crane alive descends from those few survivors.

On which host's Tonight Show did George Archibald tell the story of Tex the whooping crane in 1982?

Johnny Carson and his audience were stunned when Archibald ended the tale with the news that Tex had died shortly after her only chick hatched.

Which predator caused most natural deaths among whooping cranes released near Kissimmee, Florida?

Bobcats ambushed captive-raised cranes that had never learned to roost in deep water, and at least 12 of the cats were trapped and moved to protect the flock.

Which state's White Lake marshes gained a new non-migratory whooping crane flock in 2011?

Louisiana had been the last place with whooping cranes that never migrated, and a chick hatched there in 2016 was the state's first in the wild since 1939.

What kind of disaster in 1940 scattered the last whooping cranes living year-round on the Gulf Coast?

A hurricane killed about half of that flock of thirteen, and the survivors never bred in the wild again, leaving one migratory flock to carry the species.

How does a whooping crane hold its long neck in flight, unlike the herons and egrets it resembles?

Stretched straight out is the crane way to fly, with the long dark legs trailing behind; herons pull the neck back into an S-shape instead.

Which marking on a white adult whooping crane is hidden when the wings are folded and shows only in flight?

Black wingtips appear only when the bird opens its wings: they are the long primary flight feathers, tucked out of sight whenever it stands or walks.

Whooping cranes once ranged from Canada across the United States and as far south as which country?

Mexico marked the southern edge of a range that once held more than 10,000 birds, spread from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast.

What mainly drove whooping cranes from more than 10,000 birds to about twenty by the early 1940s?

Hunting and habitat loss did the damage: settlers shot the big white birds and ploughed up the prairie wetlands where the cranes once nested.

When whooping cranes nest on a northern marsh, who sits on the eggs for about a month?

Both parents take turns on the nest so that it is almost never left uncovered, with the female usually taking the night shift.

How can a migrating whooping crane cover long distances while barely flapping its seven-foot wings?

Riding thermals and wind lets a crane catch a strong gust and glide a good distance on set wings, saving energy on a journey of about 2,400 miles each way.

Besides wearing costumes, what rule did Operation Migration handlers keep around whooping crane chicks?

Staying silent kept the chicks from linking human voices with care, while the white suit hid the handler completely, with only a screen to see through.

The crane family, which includes whooping cranes, lives on most continents but is absent from which region?

South America has no cranes at all, a gap biologists still find puzzling, since the family reaches every other continent except Antarctica.

Which naturalist gave the whooping crane its first scientific name in 1758, using two Englishmen's accounts?

Carl Linnaeus grouped it with the herons, drawing on Mark Catesby's account and George Edwards's study of a specimen brought to London from Hudson Bay.

Which president created the Texas coastal refuge where whooping cranes winter, by executive order in 1937?

Franklin Roosevelt set the land aside as a waterfowl refuge on the last day of 1937, and Civilian Conservation Corps crews then built its roads.

What forms the red crown on the head of an adult whooping crane, a mostly white bird?

Bare skin, almost featherless, makes the red patch that runs from the bill over the top of the head, and a young bird only gains it in its first spring.

Money from which offshore disaster's settlement helped buy 17,000 acres of whooping crane marsh in 2014?

The Deepwater Horizon spill settlement supplied $35 million toward the Texas purchase, and a state parks charity raised another $15 million.

What do whooping cranes lose for a time every two to three years, leaving them more exposed to predators?

The ability to fly goes when a crane sheds all its main wing feathers at once, and moulting birds seem to shift from open marsh into thicker cover.

An Indiana man who admitted killing First Mom, a breeding whooping crane, was fined how much in 2011?

A $1 fine, plus probation and about $500 in court fees, outraged conservation groups, since raising and releasing one crane can cost up to $100,000.

The Salt Plains refuge, a major stopover for migrating whooping cranes, lies in which state?

Oklahoma's Salt Plains refuge is all designated critical crane ground, so its crystal-digging season closes in mid-October to leave the birds in peace.

In which state were whooping crane eggs placed in other cranes' nests to start a foster flock in 1975?

Idaho's foster cranes hatched and reared whooper chicks that learned to migrate, but the youngsters grew up courting the wrong species and never paired with their own kind.

Bill Lishman, who pioneered leading geese and whooping cranes on migration, worked in which profession?

A sculptor from Ontario, Lishman began his bird work with goslings in the 1980s and founded Operation Migration with photographer Joe Duff.

The International Crane Foundation, a breeder of whooping cranes, began on a horse farm in which Wisconsin town?

Baraboo is where two Cornell students set it up in 1973 on a farm rented from one founder's family, and it grew to keep all 15 of the world's crane species.

Which Audubon ornithologist, also a saviour of the roseate spoonbill, led the 1940s whooping crane rescue?

Robert Porter Allen studied the flock's winter life on the Texas coast and flew summer surveys over northern Canada, but a helicopter crew spotted the hidden nesting grounds first, in 1954.

Which Maryland research center bred whooping cranes for 51 years before closing the program in 2017?

Patuxent built its flock from eggs gathered at wild nests, and when the program closed its 75 birds were shared among zoos and private breeding centers.

Which coastal fruit is an important autumn food for whooping cranes arriving on the Texas salt marshes?

Wolfberry and clams help fill the winter menu, a far cry from the insects, frogs and rodents the birds eat on their northern nesting grounds.

What name was given to the only chick of Tex, the whooping crane tended by George Archibald?

Gee Whiz was raised successfully and later bred with female whooping cranes, so the three years of effort with his mother were not wasted.

A whooping crane costume worn by Operation Migration crews is now held by which Smithsonian institution?

The Air and Space Museum took the suit with other Operation Migration gear, from a project one official likened to putting a man on the Moon.

Which shallow, braided Nebraska river is a famous stopover for migrating whooping cranes?

The Platte runs so wide and shallow that pioneers joked it was a mile across but only inches deep, and migrating waterbirds crowd its valley twice a year.