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Dan Lewis, the creator behind the widely-read daily newsletter Now I Know ('Learn Something New Every Day, By Email'), has graciously agreed to share some of his intriguing stories with mental_floss this week. To subscribe to his daily email, click here.
The whooping crane, an endangered species native to North America, once thrived in large numbers before European settlers arrived. Estimates put their population at 10,000 before colonization. By the late 1800s, this number had dwindled to roughly 1,500, and by 1941, only 23 remained—two in captivity and the rest in the wild.
Joe Duff was determined to reverse this alarming trend. His solution? He and his team began dressing up in costumes resembling the whooping cranes they sought to protect.
Duff is the co-founder and CEO of the non-profit organization, Operation Migration. The whooping crane population faces significant danger, primarily due to habitat destruction. The traditional migration routes, which have been followed by these cranes for generations, have slowly vanished as human development expanded. Each generation of cranes learns the migratory path by following their parents, but with the destruction of these habitats, many parents led their young into areas where they could not survive. Left without guidance, the younger cranes became lost and perished as well.
To address this challenge, Operation Migration draws upon a development from the 1980s and 1990s. Bill Lishman, a Canadian ultralight aircraft enthusiast and future co-founder of Operation Migration, proposed the idea that certain waterfowl could be trained to follow an ultralight plane to a new migratory destination. In 1993, Lishman successfully guided a group of sixteen Canada geese from Ontario to Virginia. Thirteen of the geese returned to Ontario the following year, without any human assistance.
Lishman’s breakthrough hinged on the concept that waterfowl, shortly after hatching, imprint on the first living creature they encounter. Normally, this would be their mother, but in a controlled setting, it could be any animal—including a human, given the right conditions. Duff, in an interview with NPR’s Talk of the Nation, explained: 'Whooping cranes hatch in the nest, in a marsh, and almost immediately leave to follow their parents to forage for food. If they don’t follow their parents, they get lost. The natural instinct to imprint is there, so we just replace the parents with the pilot, ensuring they imprint on us.' The pilots wear distinctive costumes to prevent the cranes from associating humans with care, which could hinder their ability to survive in the wild.
Once the cranes are trained to follow the pilot, Operation Migration continues to work with them, reinforcing their conditioning to follow the ultralight aircraft, as shown below.
According to an interview Duff gave to VetStreet.com, there are currently about 500 whooping cranes in the wild—marking a nearly 20-fold increase over just a few generations. However, there is still much work to be done. Unexpected hurdles have arisen along the way. As reported by the Sierra Club, towards the end of 2011 and into 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded Operation Migration’s aircraft due to an unclear regulation that required the organization to obtain a special waiver before they could resume flying. They are currently working with the FAA to find a permanent solution so that the flights can continue without further complications.
