What to Know
- In 1942, there were only 16 whooping cranes left in the country. Now there are more than 500, most living in the wild.
- The rescue of a crane in 1964 led to scientists developing a way to artificially inseminate birds.
- 75 whooping cranes will be relocated to Louisiana and Texas.
After decades of helping the population of one of the most majestic species of birds in North America recover, the whooping crane captive breeding program at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland is coming to an end.
The center in Laurel has devoted 200 acres to saving the whooping crane, which stand about 5 feet tall. In 1942, there were only 16 whooping cranes left in the country. Now there are more than 500, most living in the wild.
“These birds are still highly endangered,” Patuxent Director Dr. John French Jr. said.
Patuxent’s project started in the 1960s.
“We’ve been doing it for slightly over 50 years, and many of our scientists and staff have dedicated their whole careers to working with whooping cranes,” French said.
It started with one crane who broke his wing and was rescued by scientists in Canada in 1964. Eventually, that crane — named Canus by combining Canada and U.S. —was taken to Laurel where he lived for more than 30 years and produced generations of whooping cranes.
“So many of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren are out in the wild today,” Dr. Glenn Olsen said.
Because he had a broken wing, Canus couldn’t mate.
“In order to do that the male has to have two wings to use to balance,” French said.
So the scientists at Patuxent developed a method of artificial insemination for birds.
“He really was the father and grandfather and great-grandfather of maybe 30 to 40 percent of the birds in our collection for many years,” French said.
For Olsen, who has been caring for the whooping cranes for more than 30 years, the end of the program is a bittersweet time looking back at all their success while saying goodbye to some old friends.
“We’ll be missing most of them,” he said. “There’s a few that are characters, maybe that we won’t miss as much.”
The 75 whooping cranes at Patuxent will be loaded into crates and flown to new homes in Louisiana and Texas by the U.S. Coast Guard. Other captive breeding institutions will take over their captive breeding effort with a focus on reintroducing them into the wild.
