Comments on: The Marvelous Migrating Whooping Crane https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/ Wed, 25 May 2011 09:09:18 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Science https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503121 Wed, 25 May 2011 09:09:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503121 Beautiful! I love cranes!

]]> By: Kathlin Sickel https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503120 Tue, 24 May 2011 19:12:44 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503120 While a new class of whooping cranes follows an ultralight from Florida to Wisconsin each fall (since 2001), it is not true that they follow the plane back to Wisconsin.

On the contrary, they need no help once they’ve learned the migration route and return reliably every spring. You can follow the journey – usually fascinating, sometimes hilarious – of the crane youngsters in daily posts at the website of Operation Migration listed above (and one of the founding members of the partnership to establish the WI-FL flock).

Your larger point that the existence of whooping cranes is still extremely precarious is SO true. At Journey North, also listed above, it is stated that “The long-term recovery goal for Whooping cranes is to establish a self-sustaining population of a minimum of 1,000 Whooping cranes in ALL of North America by the year 2035.” Currently Journey North counts 414 whooping cranes in the wild, but they still have a long way to go! And at another source (which I can’t now locate) I read that endangered species experts believe that a species needs to number over 5,000 to be considered stable. Will whooping cranes ever make it? Wouldn’t we like to hope so?

]]> By: Mike Haubrich https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503119 Mon, 23 May 2011 23:18:43 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503119 @rick #2

I don’t think that peyote would work to solve the present problem.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503118 Mon, 23 May 2011 21:04:16 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503118 That’s an interesting question. That could actually be a doable experiment in a high school biology class.

I’m thinking not. The young do grow up seeing all the nurturing behavior (because they are nurtured). You’d have to look at facultative parasites.

]]> By: Marcia https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503117 Mon, 23 May 2011 20:25:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503117 I’ve always wondered if brown headed cow birds could be taught to build nests and raise young.

]]> By: Wouter https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503116 Mon, 23 May 2011 15:29:53 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503116 “Windy or not, a day this beautiful has to be lived. The day is bright and clear, the sky blue, and the dry air feels light. A northerly wind stirs a primal urge to move. The geese feel it, and so do I. Perhaps it is a last internal vestige from a time, long ago, when we migrated with the seasons across open plains, following the animals we pursued for food. Perhaps that is why the sight of migrating geese arrests our attention, why we feel the pull. We want to go, to travel in fresh or moody weather, taking in each newly revealed vista.” – Carl Safina

]]> By: Rick https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503115 Mon, 23 May 2011 14:51:28 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503115 Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues) for further reading.

]]> By: Birger Johansson https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503114 Mon, 23 May 2011 14:48:58 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/23/the-marvelous-migrating-whoopi/#comment-503114 Securing the future will almost certainly require sequencing the genomes of old taxidermy specimen to regain a fraction of the lost genetic diversity.
Fortunately the rapid progress in sequencinng technologies will make this affordable, and the progress in filtering out the effects of contamination of old specimen by Svante Pääbo et al at Max Planck Institute will also be invaluable.

I do not know how difficult bird eggs are to clone, but the large eggs imply the process might be more robust than with the mammalian micro-eggs.

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