Flag Abuse

One Smart Bird (the following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story.             It could have been abandonment issues, an aggressive gene,or a loose screw, but when number 10-08 from Operation Migration's Class of 2008 pecked away at his shell and enteredthe world, he was a force to be reckoned with. His parents were from the2003-generation nesting for the first time at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. In their inexperience,they abandoned the nest. Their two eggs were collected and transported to thePatuxent Wildlife Research Center. Number 10-08 and his sister 11-08 wereincubated and added to the ultralight cohort. When 11-08 was shipped to NecedahNWR, printed on the side of his box were the words, GOOD LUCK. The teamisolated him for a couple of days to observe his behavior. Feeling that he'dadjusted to his new home after a few days, they introduced him to the membersof his cohort. Within three hours, he had fatally injured one crane andseriously injured two others (one was his sister 11-08). Number 11-08experienced mental and physical stress, resulting in her feathers developingimproperly. Sadly, she had to be removed from training and was sent to theMilwaukee Zoo. The other injured crane was removed as well.           Number 10-08 was isolated again and then placed in Cohort One with theolder chicks whom the team hoped would keep 10-08 in line. The strategy workeduntil it was time to combine Cohorts One and Two. The aggressive crane wastedno time in grabbing the beak of number 13-08 through a chain-link fence. Theyounger bird was rescued before any serious injury resulted. The next morning,10-08 attacked several other youngsters from Cohort Two. He was again placed inconfinement.            
           The WCEP team held a conference to decide what to do with the rebelcrane. He was too genetically valuable to remove from the flock, but tooaggressive to continue to train with the other chicks. The Class of 2008 hadalready dwindled to fourteen and could not afford another loss. Ten days beforethe scheduled migration, the WCEP team decided to release the five-month-oldchick on the Necedah NWR, hoping he would take up with older cranes and followthem south.            On the evening of October 22, number 10-08 was given hisfreedom. His flock mates had left on their maiden voyage five days earlier. Thetraining crew left a pumpkin as a goodbye treat, gave the bird a pat on theback, and walked away. A few days later, as if knowing exactly what he wasdoing, he had taken up with two older cranes, numbers 18-3 and 13-3, who justhappened to be his natural parents.Number 10-08's photo is from OM's website:http://www.operationmigration.org/index.html