PAUL SMITH

Smith: The only whooping crane to survive a Wisconsin winter has raised a chick in Horicon Marsh -- a first for the refuge

Paul A. Smith
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A female whooping crane feeds its chick at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge near Mayville, Wis. The chick was the first to fledge at the expansive wetland, a hopeful milestone for the endangered species.

In April, a pair of whooping cranes prepared a nest in the expansive wetland at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge.

About mid-April, at least one egg was laid.

In mid-May, one tiny chick hatched.

And to the delight of the universe, this summer the youngster fledged and has been observed flying and feeding with its parents as recently as mid-August.

The caramel, white and black-colored colt is learning to be a wild whooper in Wisconsin.

The development is significant in many regards.

For the whooping crane, an endangered species struggling to increase its numbers, each individual added to the flock is critical.

Arguably, wild-produced offspring such as this one – named W13-20 by researchers – are even more important for the future of the species than captive-reared birds.

And in 2020, a year dominated by a human health pandemic when the word "unprecedented" has become cliché and typically associated with bad news, here's a milestone that's an antidote to negativity: it's the first time a whooper fledged at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge.

“It's been a great development," said Davin Lopez, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources conservation biologist and member of the state's whooping crane team. “This wild chick represents what we hope is a key to establishing a self-sustaining migratory flock.”

A juvenile whooping crane (center) and its parents forage at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge near Mayville, Wis.

Elements in the success story extend into history long before April, of course.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 helped provide protection to cranes and other migratory birds, many species of which were killed by commercial hunters for meat or feathers and were on the brink of extinction.

In 1934, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Act which required all waterfowl hunters age 16 and older to purchase a stamp (commonly known as the "duck stamp") to fund the purchase and protection of wetlands and other wildlife habitat.

Over the past 86 years the program has raised more than $1 billion to help acquire and protect more than 6 million acres of habitat in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Central to the whooper story, stamp dollars were used in 1941 to establish Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. In fact, 99% of the 22,000-acre public property was purchased through the duck stamp program, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

As described in USFWS literature, forward-thinking conservationists created the central Wisconsin refuge "to provide an undisturbed sanctuary for a number of migratory birds and waterfowl, including the redhead duck" as well as to provide opportunities for people "to connect with nature through many wildlife dependent recreational activities such as wildlife observation, photography, environmental education and interpretation, fishing and hunting."

It served its role extremely well this year, for one of our rarest native species.

And the timeline must include 1973 for two reasons. First, it was the year Cornell University ornithology students George Archibald and Ron Sauey founded the International Crane Foundation.

Headquartered in Baraboo, the organization is unmatched in its efforts to combine research, captive breeding and reintroduction, landscape restoration and education to safeguard the world's 15 crane species.

Also in 1973 the Endangered Species Act was signed into law; whooping cranes were charter members of the list of imperiled wildlife. The legislation added federal resources and enforcement to species protection efforts.

Whooping cranes needed it; in 1941, only 15 remained in the wild, all of which wintered at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf coast in Texas, according to the USFWS.

Key Wisconsin contributions also came from Terry and Mary Kohler of Sheboygan, crane lovers and pilots, who used their aircraft to pick-up and deliver whooper eggs to ICF-led rearing projects.

Whooper advocates have left almost no stone unturned in their efforts to bring back North America's tallest bird. The efforts have included artificial insemination, ultralight aircraft-led migrations and release of captive-reared birds.

The population has slowly increased, thanks to the huge investment of private and public talent and treasure. Yet the whooper's status remains endangered.

Two distinct migratory populations summer in northwestern Canada and central Wisconsin and winter along the Gulf Coast of Texas and the southeastern United States, respectively, according to the ICF. Small, non-migratory populations live in central Florida and coastal Louisiana.

In 2018, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aerial surveys counted 505 cranes in and around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge as part of their annual winter survey, a 17% increase from the previous year and the most since the 1800s, according to the Service.

In Wisconsin this year, 83 whoopers were documented, Lopez said.

The cohort included  21 nesting pairs, from which 18 chicks hatched.

Just four of those fledged; one at Horicon, two at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and one on private property in Adams County.

That has been a chief problem for nesting whoopers in Wisconsin – some eggs are laid, some chicks hatch, but very few survive and are recruited into the population.

At times, black flies have been identified as the culprit and have caused adults to abandon nests. In other cases, predation of chicks has been documented, Lopez said.

Wildlife biologists would prefer to see about 50% of the hatchlings result in fledged birds, Lopez said.

Could Horicon become an important new site for whooper production?

If it does, the adult pair that produced the fledgling this year will be the trendsetters.

The adult male is 63-15, a bird raised at ICF and released in 2015.

The female is 38-17, hatched in 2017 at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland and raised there by parent cranes. The bird was then transported to Wisconsin on Oct. 3, 2017, and released at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in the hopes it would follow an adult crane and migrate.

However, 38-17 formed an association with two sandhill cranes, one of which had a broken wing, and never migrated. The young whooper ended up surviving the winter at Horicon, largely thanks to supplemental feeding, Lopez said.

The next year 38-17 paired up with 63-15 and wintered in Illinois.

The pair has faithfully returned to Horicon for breeding seasons, and this year, as described, nested and produced the first whooper fledgling at the wetland.

The youngster, W13-20 is a male; it was banded by ICF staff. 

If all goes according to plan, it will spend the fall and winter with its parents, then return to Wisconsin next year, perhaps to pair up with another whooper or perhaps hang out with sandhill cranes. It won't likely breed until it's 3 years old.

The state's whooping crane team is hoping W13-20 will become part of the long-term success of the recovery program.

You probably won't be able to identify it – or any of the other whoopers that now call Wisconsin a seasonal home – by the numbers on its bands. In fact, wildlife experts recommend you never try to get close to the endangered birds.

But if from a distance you see an improbably-tall bird – whooping crane adults are 5 feet tall – with a white body, black accents on its wings and a red face, take a moment to thank all the people, programs and organizations who made it possible for the birds to continue to grace Wisconsin.

The unprecedented fledging of a wild whooping crane at Horicon was decades in the making. And it certainly has brightened 2020.

Here's to many more happy whooper milestones in the years to come.