Whooping crane
The whooping crane is a large North American bird known for its striking appearance and distinctive bugle-like call. Standing between four to five feet tall and possessing a wingspan of about seven feet, these cranes have solid-white plumage accented by small red crowns on their heads. Their population has faced significant decline, primarily due to habitat destruction caused by human activities, leading them to be classified as endangered. Migration plays a vital role in their life cycle; whooping cranes travel approximately 2,000 miles each year from northern Canada to eastern Texas, often flying at altitudes of up to two miles.
Conservation efforts have been critical in protecting this species, including innovative strategies such as using sandhill cranes to raise whooping crane chicks. Their diet consists of a variety of foods, from plants to small aquatic animals, and they typically forage alone or in small groups during the winter. Whooping cranes form lifelong bonds, engaging in elaborate courtship dances, and typically breed in marshlands. While their life expectancy ranges from 22 to 30 years in the wild, they can live up to 40 years in captivity. Understanding the whooping crane's unique behaviors, challenges, and conservation needs is essential for their continued survival.
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Whooping crane
The whooping crane receives its name from its loud call which sounds like a bugle, trumpet, or trombone. Their calls may be heard when they land to rest as they migrate 2,000 miles from Canada to Texas. They may fly as high as two miles (three kilometers) above the ground.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Gruidae
Genus: Grus
Species: Americana
Whooping cranes are North American birds not frequently seen in large numbers. Their population has never been very high, but because of habitat destruction, they are endangered. In the 1930s, they were nearly extinct. As the human population increased and drained marshlands to build roads and canals, the birds' habitats were destroyed, and the birds moved away. Conservation efforts and government protection have safely guarded the birds that live in two places—northern Canada and eastern Texas. Part of these efforts has been to have sandhill cranes act as foster parents for whooping cranes. Conservationists remove one of the two eggs from a whooping crane nest and place it in the nest of a sandhill crane, which incubates and raises the young crane. This helps increase the whooping crane population.
Whooping cranes are large birds at home in the water and on land. Their habitats are marshlands in Canada and Texas. In the summer, they mate along the shores of Canada’s Great Slave Lake. In the winter, they live in Texas near the Gulf of Mexico. They migrate 2,000 miles between these sites each year, often flying as high as two miles (three kilometers) above the ground and resting in lakes, swamps, and prairies. They call loudly to one another, sounding like trumpets, trombones, or bugles.
They are four to five feet (1 to 1 1/2 meters) tall and have great wingspans of seven feet (two meters). With their wings folded at their sides, these cranes have solid-white plumage, or feathering, over their bodies. They have small red patches on the tops of their heads called crowns. The fronts of their faces are black or red, and their bills are long, straight, and yellowish-black. Their long legs and unwebbed feet are black. When the cranes spread their wings when dancing or flying, the bold, black, finger-like, primary feathers at the tips of their wings become visible.
In their marshland habitats, the whooping cranes forage on leaves, roots, and fruit. They also catch eels, insects, wireworms, larvae, crayfish, mollusks, frogs, shellfish, and other invertebrates, or animals without skeletons. Cranes typically feed by themselves but may form small groups to forage together in winter. Foxes, wolves, bears, eagles, and coyotes prey on whooping cranes.
While on the winter grounds in Texas, a male attracts a female by performing a courtship dance unique to several species of cranes. After bowing before the female, he flaps his wings and leaps into the air while arching his neck over his back. The female responds by dancing also. By the middle of April, the male and female form a bond and often stay together for life. After a two-week migration to their north Canadian breeding grounds, the pair builds a nest of vegetation on the ground. The female lays two tan or olive-colored eggs. The male helps incubate the eggs for 30 to 35 days until they hatch. Usually only one of the chicks receives the attention and nurture of its parents, and the other dies. Crane's legs grow much faster than their wings, so the young crane can swim and run before it can fledge, or fly, 80 to 100 days after hatching. In September, the young follow their parents 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) south. The young crane is independent when it is eight months old and can mate after four or five years. A male may begin courting a mate as early as December. By forming a bond this early, the newly-matched male and female are ready to fly north in the spring. They continue the life cycle their parents performed, reaching maturity after four years.
Whooping cranes live for 22 to 30 years in the wild and up to 40 years in captivity.
Bibliography
"Whooping Crane." A-Z Animals, 19 Feb. 2021, a-z-animals.com/animals/whooping-crane. Accessed 15 May 2024.
"Whooping Crane." National Audubon Society, www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/whooping-crane. Accessed 15 May 2024.
"Whooping Crane." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2020, www.iucnredlist.org/species/22692156/181242855. Accessed 15 May 2024.