Wildlife Research Center Works To Keep Bird Species From Going Extinct
LAUREL, Md. (WJZ) — The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel is working to bring the population of Whooping Cranes back from the brink of extinction.
Their distinctive, and loud call gives Whooping Cranes their name. A call that all but fell silent by the middle of the 20th century.
Standing five feet tall, the largest land bird in North America was nearly driven to extinction as many sought their feathers for hats.
According to Dr. Allen O'Connell, Crane Project manager at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, the cause was "Indiscriminate overhunting back in the early 1900's and loss of habitat, habitat fragmentation, and development of wetlands."
Behind fences and acres of open space, the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center has spent half a century building the population of Whooping Cranes up from one tiny flock.
"All Whooping Cranes that are alive today derive from that one flock of 16 in 1942," said Dr. John French, the center's director. "Which is vanishingly small. Almost extinct."
Now, there may be as many as 700 Whooping Cranes in the wild and in captivity.
At Patuxent, birds were hatched and raised by hand, with caregivers careful not to let the birds imprint on them or see a human until they matured into adults.
"People can present a danger to them," says crane flock manager Brian Clauss. "Or they can go to people for food or be injured by cars, vehicles, things like that."
Going from 16 birds to an estimated 700 does not mean the birds are out of danger.
"Probably have to get up into the thousands before we're kind of comfortable with the bird having been fully recovered," says O'Connell.
The 75 cranes at Patuxent will be sent to breeding programs at four zoos. They'll be flown in special crates and be gone by the end of the year.
"It's hard to believe so much time has gone by," says Clauss.
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