Texas drought raises stakes for Wisconsin cranes
MILWAUKEE — The devastating drought in Texas is raising the risks for the world’s only self-sustaining flock of migratory whooping cranes, and it’s raising the stakes for Wisconsin’s efforts to help preserve the endangered species.
The specter of drought, hurricanes or other calamities is why Wisconsin and a few other states — away from Texas — were identified as candidates for crane reintroduction, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Sunday . But despite a multimillion-dollar effort over the past decade, Wisconsin’s whoopers have struggled with reproduction issues and other problems.
The 5-foot tall cranes that migrate in the eastern United States, largely between Wisconsin and Florida, are a separate flock from those migrating between Texas and northern Alberta, Canada. But the Wisconsin-based International Crane Foundation is now taking a more active role in Texas water policy and outreach efforts because of the threat to the species there, including testimony in a case in federal court involving water rights and cranes.
The tallest birds in North America have long had troubles. They’re slow to mature and a frequent target of unregulated hunting. Just 15 migrating cranes existed in 1941. The latest threat has been extremely dry conditions along the Gulf of Mexico. During the last major drought three years ago, 23 cranes died, although there’s debate whether a water crisis or something else killed them.
Over the past year, rainfall at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas has totaled 15 inches. That’s down 59 percent from normal, government figures show. Some coastal marshes are now saltier than the ocean, and toxic algae blooms known as red tide are washing along the coast.
Still, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the cranes there this winter appear to be in good physical condition.
“But we are definitely concerned, and we are doing all we can to help them get ready for the migration,” refuge spokeswoman Vicki Muller said.
The Crane Foundation’s scientist based in Texas agrees with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s current assessment — that there is little to suggest the birds, with their brilliant white plumage, appear to be in imminent trouble. But she said looks can be deceiving.
“The cranes appear outwardly healthy,” said Elizabeth H. Smith, a conservation biologist with the foundation. “But anecdotally, from my observations, they don’t seem to be getting enough food.”
Texas’ problems underscore the significance of work to reintroduce whooping cranes in the eastern United States, which started with a public-private, multimillion-dollar initiative in 2001. There are now about 100 cranes in the eastern flock and about 300 in the west, according to whooping crane experts.
In the eastern flock, cranes hatched in captivity are trained to fly behind small experimental aircraft. Pilots fly the aircraft from Wisconsin to Florida. This year’s migration is still under way.
The experiment in the east has fallen short of some people’s expectations. Cranes in Wisconsin have had little success reproducing, and swarms of black flies at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge have been blamed for sudden nest abandonment.
Earlier efforts in Florida and Idaho failed. A fourth reintroduction in Louisiana began in 2010.
The rationale for starting new flocks in Wisconsin and other places is insurance in case catastrophe strikes in Texas.
“We think it vindicates the decision,” said Richard Beilfuss, president and chief executive officer of the Crane Foundation, headquartered in Baraboo. “There is plenty that can go wrong down there — hurricanes, an oil spill and drought.”