MILWAUKEE — They’re off again and flying.
For a seventh year, young whooping cranes took off from a Wisconsin wildlife refuge, led by ultralight aircraft on a 1,250-mile journey to Florida.
This time, the project to establish a second migratory flock of the endangered birds in North America is recovering from a Florida storm last winter that killed all but one of the 18 young cranes.
The survivor died later, and with several other deaths from various causes, the adult flock in the wild now numbers about 52 cranes.
The 17 birds that left Saturday from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge were hatched in captivity and raised there by researchers wearing cranelike costumes to keep the birds from becoming familiar with humans.
The ultralight pilots wear the same costumes and lead the birds on a trip that takes about two months, with many stops where the young birds are kept in portable pens along the way. After that, the birds migrate in spring and autumn on their own.
Pilot Joe Duff, co-founder of Operation Migration, the nonprofit that developed the concept of ultralight-led migration, said last winter’s tragedy has been difficult to overcome.
“That whole loss came at the worst possible time,” he said. “Everything was done, all the funds were raised and all the bills were paid and all the work was done — and then you lose the birds.”
But it also has broadened the message about saving cranes and other species, and about conserving resources, he said.
“The population is not safe. We could lose the entire species to storms or oil spills or some sort of catastrophic event,” he said. “So it shows just how important this work really is to get them to the point where they’re self-sustaining and kind of build an insurance flock against this kind of situation.”
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