Characterization of Habitat Used by Whooping Cranes During Migration
Characterization of Habitat Used by Whooping Cranes During Migration

Author: Michael J. Armbruster

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 16

ISBN-13:

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Information is drawn from the literature and the professional opinions of behaviorists and habitat use experts, and used to describe requirements of whooping cranes (Grus americana) during migration. Migration strategies of North American cranes are compared and inferences drawn. The requirements for usable food and cover are examined and described quantitatively for evaluations that focus on roosting habitat. When possible, information is presented in terms of both traditional and nontraditional stopover areas. Perceived problems with the data and their interpretation, are discussed, and issues requiring further study are identified. Relations presented do not represent selection, as defined by use and availability studies, but rather should be interpreted as a formalized synthesis of information directed by the opinions of recognized authorities in crane biology. Site-specific evaluation criteria address issues of visibility, water depth, wetland size, and disturbance; suitability relations are presented for each habitat component. Horizontal visibility is defined as a straight-line distance to the nearest obstruction greater than 1 m in height, and that distance must be greater than 20 m before a site can be considered as potential habitat. Optimum water depth is considered to be less than or equal to 30 cm. The minimum wetland size considered usable for roosting is 0.04 ha. Disturbances are treated as zones of influence around selected features with no zone having a minimum width of less than 100 m. Broad-scale evaluations can employ information readily available from inventories or surveys such as wetland system, class, water regime, and size, to rapidly screen potential habitat suitability over large geographic areas. Suggestions for application of evaluation criteria are presented.

Endangered and Threatened Species of the Platte River
Endangered and Threatened Species of the Platte River

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2005-02-24

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0309092302

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The tension between wildlife protection under the Endangered Species Act and water management in the Platte River Basin has existed for more than 25 years. The Platte River provides important habitat for migratory and breeding birds, including three endangered or threatened species: the whooping crane, the northern Great Plains population of the piping plover, and the interior least tern. The leading factors attributed to the decline of the cranes are historical overhunting and widespread habitat destruction and, for the plovers and terns, human interference during nesting and the loss of riverine nesting sites in open sandy areas that have been replaced with woodlands, sand and gravel mines, housing, and roadways. Extensive damming has disrupted passage of the endangered pallid sturgeon and resulted in less suitable habitat conditions such as cooler stream flows, less turbid waters, and inconsistent flow regimes. Commercial harvesting, now illegal, also contributed to the decline of the sturgeon. Endangered and Threatened Species of the Platte River addresses the habitat requirements for these federally protected species. The book further examines the scientific aspects of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's instream-flow recommendations and habitat suitability guidelines and assesses the science concerning the connections among the physical systems of the river as they relate to species' habitats.

Whooping Cranes: Biology and Conservation
Whooping Cranes: Biology and Conservation

Author:

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2018-09-04

Total Pages: 538

ISBN-13: 0128035854

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Whooping Cranes: Biology and Conservation covers one of the most endangered birds in North America, and the subject of intense research and highly visible conservation activity. The volume summarizes current biological information on Whooping Cranes and provides the basis for future research necessary for conservation of this species. This edited volume concentrates on work completed in the past 20 years in the areas of population biology, behavior and social structure, habitat use, disease and health, captive breeding, and Whooping Crane conservation. Much of the information presented comes from the study and management of remnant and reintroduced populations of Whooping Cranes in the field; some information is from experimentation and breeding of captive Whooping Cranes. Whooping Cranes: Biology and Conservation seeks to inform and galvanize action dedicated to meeting the challenges faced by Whooping Crane managers and conservationists. Thus, it describes one model of endangered species conservation and restoration that will interest a wide audience: professionals that work on cranes; researchers in the fields of small population biology, endangered species, and avian ecology; wildlife veterinarians and those involved in avian husbandry; administrators of management agencies or conservation organizations; conservationists in other fields; teachers of conservation biology or ornithology and their students; and the educated general public. Presents a comprehensive treatment of the biology and ecology of Whooping Cranes, including biology of both remnant and reintroduced populations of Whooping Cranes Describes efforts over the past 45 years on conservation and the challenges of reintroducing an endangered species Includes chapters from a variety of disciplinary and scale perspectives, ranging from evolution, to population ecology, behavior, habitat use, large landscape conservation, conflict, and conservation efforts Features contributions that are readable, yet technically complete and fully referenced Provides an example of partnership and collegial action that integrates information produced by scientific research and operational wildlife management Edited and written by the leading Whooping Crane scholars and practitioners focused on this high-profile species of conservation concern

Migration of Radio-marked Whooping Cranes from the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population
Migration of Radio-marked Whooping Cranes from the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population

Author: Marshall A. Howe

Publisher:

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13:

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Study of the migration stopovers, breeding behavior, and survival rates of the endangered whooping cranes (Grus americana) between fall 1981-83 and spring 1983-84. Distribution pattern of radio-tracked birds observed to be greatly different from distributions derived from opportunistic sightings. observations carried out between Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas, and central Saskatchewan.

Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates
Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates

Author: Fritz L. Knopf

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-04-17

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1475727038

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The frontier images of America embrace endless horizons, majestic herds of native ungulates, and romanticized life-styles of nomadie peoples. The images were mere reflections of vertebrates living in harmony in an ecosystem driven by the unpre dictable local and regional effects of drought, frre, and grazing. Those effects, often referred to as ecological "disturbanees," are rather the driving forces on which species depended to create the spatial and temporal heterogeneity that favored ecological prerequisites for survival. Alandscape viewed by European descendants as monotony interrupted only by extremes in weather and commonly referred to as the "Great American Desert," this country was to be rushed through and cursed, a barrier that hindered access to the deep soils of the Oregon country, the rich minerals of California and Colorado, and the religious freedom sought in Utah. Those who stayed (for lack of resources or stamina) spent a century trying to moderate the ecological dynamics of Great Plains prairies by suppressing fires, planting trees and exotic grasses, poisoning rodents, diverting waters, and homogenizing the dynamies of grazing with endless fences-all creating bound an otherwise boundless vista. aries in Historically, travelers and settlers referred to the area of tallgrasses along the western edge of the deciduous forest and extending midway across Kansas as the "True Prairie. " The grasses thlnned and became shorter to the west, an area known then as the Great Plains.

Whooping Crane
Whooping Crane

Author: Klaus Nigge

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2010-08-16

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 160344209X

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Approximately 250 wild whooping cranes nest in northern Canada and winter in south Texas, flying 2,500 miles annually between these two distinct havens: the coastal marshes of the Gulf of Mexico and the boreal wilderness on the border of Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Through twists of good fortune, each of these terminal migratory places is protected from human encroachment—by a U.S. national wildlife refuge on the one hand and a Canadian national park on the other. This last remaining natural flock of the species, its numbers small but slowly increasing, has thus become known by the names of its sanctuaries: Aransas–Wood Buffalo. On the flock’s wintering grounds at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, photographer Klaus Nigge has captured the daily activity of a single family over several weeks in two separate years, documenting their life in the salt marshes of the central Texas coast and, in one year, the happy arrival from the north of twin adolescents, itself an unusual event. Then, with the backing of National Geographic magazine, he received unprecedented permission from the Canadian government to photograph the cranes’ summer nesting sites in remote areas of Wood Buffalo National Park. To obtain these unique photographs, he sat in a cleverly constructed blind for six days and nights, watching as a chick hatched and the adults cared for their young. There he witnessed both the peace and the perils of the cranes’ summer haven. In three galleries, each containing portfolios of images of these magnificent birds in their natural habitat, Nigge captures the beauty and essential mystery that have led humans the world over to include cranes in their earliest myths and legends. Additionally, Nigge has written vignettes to accompany each of the portfolios. Krista Schlyer provides an introductory text that affords an overview of crane history. She chronicles the monumental efforts by humans to ensure the survival of the species and has added a profile of Nigge, outlining his extraordinary entry into the world of wild whooping cranes in order to acquire these breathtaking photographs.

Aerial Radio-tracking of Whooping Cranes Migrating Between Wood Buffalo National Park and Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, 1981-84
Aerial Radio-tracking of Whooping Cranes Migrating Between Wood Buffalo National Park and Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, 1981-84

Author: Ernie Kuyt

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

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From 1981 to 1984, Whooping Cranes Grus americana migrating between their summer range in and near Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada and their winter range on and near the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in the United States were studied by means of radiotelemetry. Objectives of the aerial study included a precise determination of migration routes, duration of occupancy and location of stopover sites, and documentation of migrating crane behavior and mortality.