The endangered whooping crane, near extinction in the 1940's, has received a boost in recent years from the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership and ultralight aircraft guidance technology. The group and their reintroduction strategy made manifest effectively guided 17 of the 76 wild migrating whooping cranes in North America to wintering habitat in Marion County this year in January, later moving to the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Refuge in Citrus County. Aside from the 76 Wisconsin-Florida birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Whooping cranes are named for the nature of their loud unison calls. They live and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and number of aquatic plants. They are rather distinctive, often reaching a height of 5 feet by adulthood, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), an international coalition of public and private organizations, is administering the reintroduction project in an effort to return this endangered species to its historic range in eastern North America.

Check out the article online at: http://www.bringbackthecranes.org/media/2008/NR27Jan08.htm

More information on the migration can be found online at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061005-whooping-cranes.html