20% Of Whooping Crane Population Gone In 12 Months, Thanks To Drought, Wasting Disease

[hatrack]

When the world's last remaining flock of wild whooping cranes set off on its migration south from the nesting grounds on the Alberta/Northwest Territories border last fall, wildlife biologists on both sides of the border were upbeat about how the 4,000-kilometre flight to Texas would turn out. Unlike 20 of the most common birds in North America that have experienced a decline of more than 50 per cent in the past four decades, whooping crane numbers have been rising slowly but steadily, thanks to an international effort to bring back North America's biggest bird from the brink of extinction.

In 1945, there were just 15 whoopers remaining in the wild. Last summer, the flock produced a record-breaking 66 nesting pairs in Canada, giving recovery team biologists hope that as many as 300 birds would show up at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge before Christmas.

But instead of celebrating another milestone, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials were scratching their heads early in the new year, wondering why 34 of the birds that were in Canada last summer didn't show up on the salt marshes of the Gulf coast late last fall. That concern turned to alarm when another 21 birds died over the winter.

The recent discovery of yet another seriously injured bird in late March means one-fifth of the population has perished in the last 12 months. What's more, U.S. Geological Survey researchers have identified the presence of a wasting disease in the endangered flock for the first time. "We've had bad years in the past," says Tom Stehn, the U.S. co-ordinator of the whooping crane recovery program. "But in the 26 years that I've been involved in this effort, this is easily the worst year I've seen. I kind of feel like an aging sports star who should have packed it in after so many good years of playing. We've really had a great run and I was feeling pretty good about the idea of retiring in a year or two. This is not how I want to go out."

EDIT

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Technology/Worry%20about%20whoopers/1466683/story.html

[NNadir]

1. Just wait until T. Boone Pickens has a go at 'em.

Even without Pickens though, any population robbed of its genetic diversity, as is almost always the case with near extinction events, is going to have a problem facing certain kinds of insults, be they disease, toxins, or even changes in habitat.

The birds, besides Pickens and - to be fair - powerlines, are subject to all three.

This was observed most recently with Chettahs, who apparently had a near extinction event before the current one.