[TN-Bird] Crane controversy
- From: "David Aborn" <daborn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-Bird" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 08:58:20 -0500
Here is a story folks might be interested in.
David Aborn
Chattanooga, TN
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Wildlife officials tussle over remains of prolific whooping crane
Ed Struzik
The Edmonton Journal
Monday, February 10, 2003
EDMONTON -- He was just a few months old when two Canadian Wildlife Service
scientists found him with a dislocated wing in the marshy hinterland of Wood
Buffalo National Park on the Alberta/Northwest Territories border.
Had he been any other bird, he would have probably been left to the wolves
or bears.
But in the late summer of 1964, there were no more than 42 whooping cranes
like him left in the world. So Ernie Kuyt and Nick Novakowski flew the chick
back to Fort Smith, N.W.T., sent him off to be looked at by a vet in
Edmonton, and then on to the United States where scientists were hoping to
start up a captive breeding program for the endangered species.
By any measure, Canus -- "Can" for Canada and "us" for United States -- and
his partner Mrs. C, did their job well.
Before he died last month at the ripe old age of 39, the pair sired,
grandsired, and great-grandsired 186 whooping cranes, including Lucky, the
first chick to fledge to a wild whooping crane in the United States in 60
years.
And now there's a tug-of-war between the two countries over where the final
resting place for Canus should be.
"Canus was a remarkable bird," says John French, research manager at the
Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre in Maryland where the Canadian bird lived
most of his life.
As the first in the whooping crane recovery program, Canus was a symbol of
international co-operation on conservation between Canada and the United
States, and the foundation sire of the captive flock, says French.
"In spite of the fact that he had only one wing -- it eventually had to be
amputated -- and the fact that he was way up in his years, he was a very
amorous and productive bird. His genes are well represented -- perhaps too
well represented -- in the birds we have now."
Canus's story, however, is not over by a long shot.
Within minutes of his death from old age in January, a Canadian official was
on the phone calling for the return of the body to Canada.
Brian Johns, the Canadian Wildlife Service scientist who represents Canada
on the International Whooping Crane Recovery team, concedes that after 36
years at Patuxent, the Americans may have a compelling case for keeping
Canus.
"It is true that he lived most of his life at Patuxent," says Johns. "But
there is some indication that a promise was made to return the bird back to
Canada where it would be stuffed and put on display for educational
purposes. Hopefully, this will all be settled in a week or two when the
recovery team leaders have a chance to discuss it."
French chuckled when told about the promise.
"You know, he wasn't dead 10 minutes when we heard that Canada wanted him
back," he says.
"He's a legend around here, and we'd love to keep him. But if there was a
deal to send him back, I'm sure it will be honoured. But first, we'd like to
confirm that a deal was made."
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's side of it, the story
behind the legend was a dramatic one.
In a long press release issued in the days after Canus's death, the agency
recalled how the parents charged at the helicopter the day Novakowski first
spotted the injured bird back in 1964. Novakowski and Kuyt chased the chick
through the marshlands of Wood Buffalo before it tripped on its broken wing
and fell, according to the release.
Great story, but it never happened that way, says Kuyt who recently retired
from the Wildlife Service in Edmonton after working for nearly a quarter
century on the recovery of the whooper in North America.
"There were no aggressive parents," he says. "When we arrived on the scene,
we saw the family of three below. Once we were on the ground, they all
disappeared. So Nick went one way and I headed another to find them. I
walked no more than a 100 feet when I spotted the young whooper lying
motionless on the ground behind a log apparently trying to hide."
Kuyt says the whooper was unusually gentle when they bundled it up and put
it in a dog cage that they had brought along.
"But he got me back, so to speak, when I turned around. Somehow, he got his
beak through the cage and gave me a good hard poke in the backside."
Kuyt suspects the bird may have injured itself after striking a tree on one
of its practice flights because a two-inch sliver of wood was eventually
pulled from its breast muscle.
He has no doubts, however, about where the bird belongs.
"It was at a December 1993 meeting of the U.S Whooping Crane Recovery team
that a motion was passed to send Canus back to Canada after he died," says
Kuyt. "I know because I was the one who presented the motion before it
passed."
In the meantime, scientists will be watching Canus's grandson closely this
spring to see if he and other birds of his flock that were introduced to
central Florida 10 years ago will migrate back to Wisconsin. Wildlife
officials have successfully used an ultralight plane to teach the birds to
migrate back and forth from the two spots.
Creating a second migrating flock was seen as insurance in case something
happened to the Wood Buffalo birds that fly to Texas in the winter.
© Copyright 2003 Vancouver Sun
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