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Answers From the Whooping Crane Expert
Special thanks to Journey North Science Writer Laura Erickson for providing her
time and expertise in responding to your questions.
Questions From:
Lake of the Woods, MN
kmagnusson@blw.k12.mn.us
Q. What is the importance of the whooping crane to the ecosystem?
A. Whooping Cranes eat a wide variety of foods, both plant and animal, and they in turn provide food for foxes, wolves, coyotes, lynxes, bobcats, and raccoons. They are an intricate part of the ecosystem, with a unique role, just as a tiny gear in a watch may not look special, but the watch needs every one of its gears or it will stop running.
Q. What are the adaptations of the animal?
A. A crane has a very reduced back toe, so it won't get tangled in wetland vegetation but also means it canít perch in trees. It has a long, slender beak so that it can reach into water several inches deep or through dense wetland
vegetation to pull out fish, blue crabs, plants, and other food on the bottom of shallow water. It has long legs allowing it to see above tall, dense marsh vegetation and to walk in rivers and shallow lakes. It has black tips to its flight feathers because the pigments give the feathers a bit of extra strength right where they are most vulnerable to wear and tear in flight.
Q. How do humans effect the migration of the whooping crane?
A. Humans have a long history of filling in and draining wetlands, which reduces the safe places where they may rest and feed. Long ago people shot at migrating cranes, and even now they are in danger because their fall migration may coincide with goose hunting season, and hunters sometimes forget that not all white birds with black wingtips are Snow Geese.
Question From:
Harrison County Schools-5 districts, IA
mcates77@aol.com
Q. You may have heard by now that there are 6 Whooping Cranes in a field between DeSoto Bend NWR and Missouri Valley, Iowa, and only 5 miles from my house! These birds have been here since Friday and apparently got blown off by the storm. How do they find their way back this far off course? Pam Cates
A. Wow!! You sure are lucky to get to see them! How will they find their way? Birds have an amazing ability to recognize star patterns at night and to pay attention to the sun's angle in the sky during day. Using their internal biological clock they can tell if the sun is where it's supposed to beî as the day progresses. When blown off course, they can move in the right direction to get the sun where they need it to be. B.
Question From:
Canton Country Day School, OH
pjones@ccd-school.org
Q. We know that cranes travel in small groups. Do the groups with inexperienced flyers leave sooner than adult cranes because the flight may take them longer?
A. I don't think so. Some adults leading a young on migration are among the first to leave, but that is because they are already an established pair, and become ready to nest earlier than more inexperienced birds. Last year's young may not know the landmarks and route for their migration, but they are strong fliers.
Questions From:
North Albany Elementary, OR
bdaniels@8j.net
Q. Why do Blue Crabs give Whooping Cranes energy for migrating and not any other food? Cam, Nick, and Dan.
A. Whooping Cranes eat a wide variety of foods, but they do concentrate on Blue Crabs while putting on body fat and protein before their long journey. Blue Crab is simply ìthe right stuff, with the best balance of nutrients.
Q. What in Blue Crabs gives Whooping Cranes energy? Cam, Nick, and Dan.
A. They're very high in protein and fat, but so are many other things that cranes eat. Their beak is so well adapted to getting the meat out of crabs that they tend to take a lot of them!
Question From:
Platteville, WI
upton@platteville.k12.wi.us
Q. What is the most fascinating thing you have learned about the whooping crane since conducting research on this bird?
A. For me, the most fascinating thing is that the babies imprint. The very first moving creature that a baby crane sees when it hatches becomes its image of adult cranes and when the baby grows up, that will be what it seeks in a mate. So when cranes were raised in captivity and fed by humans, they fell in love with humans. The most famous example of this is Tex, a crane that was originally raised at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland and then sent to the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin. Tex bonded with crane scientist George Archibald, who had to jump up and down flapping his arms doing a crane dance with Tex every spring in order for her to lay eggs.
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