| | Accession Number | 5001831 |
| | Title | Restoration ecology of a nonmigrating population of whooping cranes in Florida: |
| | behavioral and habitat changes to increase survival |
| | Project Description | The successful production of captive-bred cranes is an essential part of the conservation and |
| | reintroduction plans for the whooping crane and other endangered/threatened crane species. The |
| | whooping crane recovery team has begun two projects. One experiment started in 1993 hopes to |
| | establish a nonmigratory population of whooping cranes in Florida and the other started in 1999 |
| | hopes to establish a new migratory population. Productivity and access to the wild population in |
| | the Wood Buffalo National Park are limited. Parks Canada ended egg collection from Wood |
| | Buffalo National Park in 1996. Because of these and other reasons, captive produced stock is |
| | necessary to provide for the reintroduction efforts. If properly chosen, Florida has ample marsh |
| | habitat to support a viable nonmigratory population of whooping cranes. Captive-reared whooping |
| | cranes require physiological and behavioral conditioning to survive release and to breed when |
| | mature. This project helps define the challenges faced by the release. This produces a variety of |
| | studies to improve survival without creating imprinting conditions that could interfere with breeding |
| | (see æBehavioral management techniques to improve survival Acc. No: 500xxxx and ôWhooping |
| | crane nocturnal roosting activity in Floridaö Acc No: To be assigned). These include studies of |
| | captive behavior that predict postrelease survival. |
| | Keywords | bobcat, florida, grus americana, release conditioning, whooping crane, |
| | Principal | George F Gee, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: George_Gee@usgs.gov; |
| | Investigators |
Return to SIS Projects Listing
