Try a Heritage Turkey this Thanksgiving!

11/20/2009

The Thanksgiving flock at Springfield Farms in Maryland includes heritage varieties as well as traditional broadbreasted whites/ Credit Springfield Farms

For Thanksgiving this year, have you considered something other than a traditionally farm-raised turkey? Most families eat the standard “large white” or “broadbreasted white” turkey; 48 million get consumed every Thanksgiving, 99% of which are traditional factory-farmed birds. Those turkeys get raised just to be eaten. That means they can’t even run, fly, or mate - takes pretty much all the fun out of being alive doesn’t it? They are engineered to grow plump quick, and often pumped with antibiotics and hormones. Christine Heinrichs, author of How to Raise Poultry and publicity director for the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities, also has a great post about the various labels you might encounter on her blog post, Thanksgiving turkey.

Huffington Post recently featured several farms that raise heritage turkeys - a great option if you want to support small farms, organic, local and/or ethically raised animals. Hope this provides some 'food for thought' if you want to explore other options for your Thanksgiving meal! Most of them require you to pick up the turkey from the ranch, so if you don’t live in these areas, try searching for heritage turkeys in your region.

Three generations of three families run Maryland’s 67-acre Springfield Farms, which sustainably raises four types of turkeys including heritage varieties as well as traditional white turkeys. They’re free range during the grass growing season, and do not get fed or injected with anything synthetic like hormones or antibiotics.

In California, the Slow Food USA Russian River Heritage Turkey Project has turkeys you can order online for pickup near Santa Rosa. Slow Food USA partnered with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) in 2001 to encourage local farmers to start raising heritage varieties that were perilously near extinction. The project has had great success. When they began their project, ALBC estimated only 1,200 breeding heritage turkeys of eight varieties lived in the U.S. and by 2004 that number increased to 4,000.

In Tampa, Kansas, the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch raises heritage turkeys and their website says, “Birds are grown on outdoor range using vegetarian feed with the highest animal welfare standards.”  Texas has the Rehoboth Ranch, near Dallas, that grows heritage turkeys that raises tuerkeys on organically managed pastures "untainted by pesticides, herbicides, or artificial fertilizers," and their animals are never given hormones or steroids, and fed organic grains. Narragansett and Red Bourbon heritage turkeys can be purchased online from Kirschbaum Family Farm through Local Harvest, or you can pick up turkeys from the farm in Kewaskum, Wisconsin.

Huffington Post highlights another company, Mary’s Free Range Turkeys highlighted in a Discovery Channel  How Stuff Works video . They take seven months to raise these birds. No doubt the conditions here are far better than those in traditional factory farms, but also different than conditions on small farms where birds that can truly roam to their heart's delight. Small farms can't produce as many turkeys, though, so it's a tradeoff.

Help for Ecuador’s Great Green Macaws

11/19/2009

A great green macaw at the Cerro Blanco Protected Forest in Ecuador. This one was rescued from the pet trade so can't be released back into the wild/ Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

In the 1990s, The Peace Corps sent Eric Horstman to Bosque Protector Cerro Blanco (Cerro Blanco Protected Forest), a dry tropical forest near Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil. It was a far cry from the Amazon jungle he initially dreamed of, but he grew to love the place. He stayed for two years, writing recommendations to the Pro-Forest Foundation (Fundacion Pro-Bosque) on how best to manage and preserve its rich biological diversity, and especially its crown jewel, the critically endangered great green macaw (Ara ambiguus guayaquilensis). Horstman went on to other Peace Corps stints in Ecuador, but  in 1993, Horstmann got the chance to return to implement the plan he’d written. He’s been there since.

“The great green macaw or Papagayo de Guayaquil is the symbol of our reserve and also the natural symbol of the city of Guayaquil, through a municipality declaration,” says Horstman. It is an endangered subspecies of the great green macaw which has a broader range throughout South America, and the Cerro Blanco Protected Forest is one of few protected areas in Ecuador for the species. “The resident population of 15 macaws range widely outside of the 16,000 acre reserve.  This points to the need of establishing a conservation corridor between Cerro Blanco and adjacent patches of dry forest, most less than 100 acres in size."

I visited the reserve in 2007 on my single day on the mainland Ecuador after an eco-cruise of the Galapagos Islands on Ecoventura. After hiking through the hills of the reserve for a bit, photographer Jason Kremkau and I met up with Horstman and he told us the reserve’s history, and showed us a couple of enclosures that housed many animals from the area that had been intercepted from the pet trade – including some great green macaws. Sadly, most cannot be returned to the wild because people either clipped their wings, or they have been in captivity so long they wouldn’t survive in the wild.

To try to increase numbers of the macaw in the wild, the Rescate Jambeli Foundation captively breeds the birds, and more than 20 chicks have now born and raised at their center.  “It is hoped that in the near future, work will begin to begin releasing macaws back into the wild to help bolster the population,” says Horstman.

The Cerro Blanco forest preserve is unusual in that it’s owned, in part, by the cement company Holcim, as mitigation for their limestone quarries nearby, and partly by the Pro-Forest Foundation. Tropical dry forest itself in Ecuador is an endangered habitat, with a high level of biodiversity. The Cerro Blanco forest preserve alone boasts 54 mammal species, including howler monkeys, white-fronted capuchin monkeys, and the South American coati, as well as 219 bird species and over 500 vascular plants, 100 of which live only in this region. One proactive aspect of the reserve is that they have converted former cattle pasture to a native tree farm, which they’re using to help restore dry tropical forest in other locales, including the corridor Horstman mentioned.

Horstman recently published an article in Order of the Earth newsletter which highlighted Ecuador as the first country to inherently recognize nature's rights. In 2008, the country approved Article 71 to their constitution that states: "Nature has a right to integrally respect its existence as well as the maintenance and regeneration of its vital cycles, structures, functions and evolutionary processes. In addition, all people, communities, and nationalities can demand the public authorities comply with the Rights of Nature." Article 73 also states: "The state will apply measures of precaution and restriction for all activities that could lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems, or the permanent alteration of natural habitats."

That is huge. According to the article, Ecuador has now become the world's first nation to recognize and legally protect nature's inherent rights.

Brown pelicans back from the brink

11/18/2009

A brown pelican/ Credit NOAA Restoration Center/Louise Kane

Finally some more good news in the world of wildlife! The brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) has returned from the brink, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced last week that the species is no longer an endangered or threatened species. The large brown fish-eating birds declined precipitously in the 1960s due largely to the chemical pesticide DDT, which caused their eggshells – along with many other bird species - to soften. That meant fewer babies, and the birds suffered almost complete reproductive failure in some places.

After Rachel Carson’s infamous manifesto against the downfalls of pesticides, Silent Spring, the government ultimately banned DDT in 1972. Brown pelicans have since made a slow, but steady recovery.  Back in 1985, the FWS removed several populations of brown pelican – including those in Alabama, Georgia, and the Atlantic coast – from the endangered species list. On November 11th, 2009 they removed the remaining populations – including the Gulf Coast and the Pacific coast populations – in a press conference held in New Orleans. Louisiana is sometimes known as the “pelican state.”

I was fascinated to learn that the brown pelican played a significant role in the creation of America's entire National Wildlife Refuge system. German immigrant Paul Kroegel was appalled at the slaughter of the pelicans for their feathers, and approached President Theodore Roosevelt about the situation. The President agreed, and created the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida in 1903. Kroegel became the first refuge manager there. Though feather harvesting for women’s hats had long since ceased, the pelican was no match for DDT in the 1960s. A single pelicans can eat up to four pounds of fish per day, much of which was laced with DDT. IN addition, in years past, fishermen would often kill pelicans, blaming the birds for affecting their fisheries harvests. Studies showed pelicans did not substantially affect commercial fishing and that helped stop such wholesale slaughter.

In the last decade, to help fully recover the pelicans along the Gulf Coast, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and The Nature Conservancy and many other organizations teamed up to restore nesting sites, monitor rookeries, and even introduced some birds from Florida to bolster their populations. It has been heralded a success.

Pelicans are cool birds. There are eight species worldwide, with the brown and American white pelican in the United States. The brown pelican is the smallest of the eight species. FWS estimates the current global population of brown pelicans at approximately 650,000 animals, and around 12,000 breeding pairs live on the Gulf Coast - which was one of the last places they were recovering from. The birds live up to 30 years, and nest in large breeding colonies. The male brings nest material to the female, who can build her nest in trees, or on the ground. And they have super keen eyesight; one can spot a fish in the water below from 60 to 70 feet in the air! Congratulations to the pelicans!

Tasmanian devils breeding younger

11/17/2009

Tasmanian devils face a devastating contagious cancer that scientists fear may lead to their extinction in the wild/ Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp

Australia's Tasmanian devils, which live only on the island state of Tasmania, have been plagued by a devastating contagious cancer - known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) that had never before been seen before first documented in the late 1990s. Discovery News reports on a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by Menna Jones of the University of Tasmania and colleagues. The study shows that the devils have started maturing and breeding at younger ages. Most animals in areas affected by the disease end up dying before the end of their first year of life, so precocious breeding is apparently an adaptation that has helped them prolong or put off their own demise. That's quite remarkable to watch a species adapt their life history right before our eyes, as a disease leads them to the brink of extinction. Scientists are working hard to create an "ark" of diversity for devils in case the species dies out in the wild.

I met with Jones in Tasmania in 2006 when their research program was still trying to confirm the disease's cause. They now know that the disease arose in a single animal and has since spread rapidly and virulently throughout much of Tasmania. It spreads when the animals bite one another during feeding or breeding.  I'd brought my two kids to Australia to cover a few Aussie wildlife and travel stories, one of which was covering the Tasmanian devil disease. We had only arrived to Australia from the States a day before, had barely checked into the Hobart hotel, and met Jones at a gorgeous ritzy waterfront restaurant, and my son Sam fell asleep in his chair after ordering filet mignon (he didn't get to eat it because he was asleep before it arrived). What can I say, the menu options were limited. I'll never or the trip to Tasmania, and especially that night, and Jones' enthusiasm towards her research, even as my child snoozed on the chair. I wrote articles for National Wildlife and Scientific American on the 'lil devils. And of course I did a previous blog post when Australia offically dubbed the species endangered back in May.

New Orleans chocolate shop helps animals

11/16/2009

Bon Bon the spokesdog for Sucré in New Orleans

Tariq Hanna, the Executive pastry chef at Sucré, the decadently delicious chocolate boutique in New Orleans has a soft spot for animals. He and his pet French bulldog, Bon Bon – the doggie mascot for the sweet shop – have decided this holiday season to donate part of their proceeds to help animals in need.

“In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, the LA/SPCA [Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] located in New Orleans was devastated,” says Sucré owner Joel Dondis. “Thanks to Bon Bon, the Sucré Spokesdog, this holiday season, in the spirit of giving, Sucré has paired up with the LA/SPCA and a portion of every dollar spent online at Sucré will go directly to benefit the LA/SPCA. Bon Bon wants to help save her friends at the LA/SPCA and we want to do our part!”

The LA/SPCA certainly could use the help. “The impact of Katrina was huge for our operations,” says Katherine LeBlanc from the LA/SPCA. “We lost our shelter, which had housed the LA/SPCA for over 20 years. We set up shop in a temporary shelter while we raised funds to build a brand new shelter from the ground up.”  They’ve now been in the news shelter for two years and finally getting back to their former capacity.

“Our intake numbers are reaching pre-Katrina levels rapidly and larger intake translates into higher euthanasia numbers,” says LeBlanc. To prevent that and help get strays off the street, they plan to open a high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter clinic in January, and have teamed up with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to spread the message about how the relatively simple effort of spaying or neutering a pet can prevent much unnecessary suffering. “We are slowly but surely gaining momentum in this post-Katrina environment.”

LeBlanc says Sucré has been involved with other fundraising efforts for them, as well. "They participated in our Annual Fundraising Gala, Howling Success, as a spotlighted restuarant with their caramel apple napoleon with herb cream. And now, Bon Bon, their Executive Pastry Chef’s dog is giving his friends at the LA/SPCA a chance to find their forever homes.

There’s nothing like having a bad day, then coming home to the delivery of a box of chocolates. Like manna from heaven, Sucré sent me a box of their holiday sugar and spice truffle collection and they were utterly divine. My daughter and I, both chocaholics, scarfed them up in one afternoon. The sugar & spice collection had three types – dark chocolate egg nog, milk chocolate ginger, and white chocolate peppermint. All I can say is, wow! I love unique spices in chocolate, and they also have collections with earl gray, absinthe, passion fruit, chai, chicory, along with more traditional flavors.  There’s a pretty funny video of Hanna and his Frenchie on vimeo you can watch here. I don’t think I’d let my dog share my ice cream cone, but… would you?

Sucre and LA/SPCA from Sucre - Founder - Joel Dondis on Vimeo.

Celebrate Steve Irwin Day Nov 15th!

11/13/2009

Celebrate Steve Irwin Day November 15th! /Credit: DCL

I remember vividly when I found out about the tragic death of Steve Irwin, September 4th, 2006. I’d stayed up after midnight writing but before bed, I checked the news online. Across the page I saw, “Breaking News” – Steve Irwin reported dead. I could not believe my eyes. I thought the man was invincible! I adored Irwin’s infectious personality and humor, and my children and I – especially my son - loved his show Crocodile Hunter. His death felt a little more personal than perhaps it otherwise would have because my two children and I had returned from a trip to Australia only two weeks earlier. During that trip, we visited Irwin’s Australia Zoo and toured the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital where I interviewed head vet Jon Hangar - who appears in some episodes - for an article I wrote for National Wildlife Magazine. Irwin and his family weren’t at the zoo then, but were on their very last trip together, catching crocs in far north Queensland, right before he boarded the boat from which he went snorkeling, when a stingray barb pierced his heart.

His widow Terri, his daughter Bindi Sue and his son Robert have chosen Nov 15th to commemorate Steve’s life on Steve Irwin Day. When I think of Steve Irwin, I think of the incredible passion he had towards wildlife and the way in which he excited kids who watched his shows. While his techniques were somewhat controversial among biologists and others, there’s no doubt he absolutely loved animals, and he devoted much of his money as well as his entire life to helping them and encouraging that same passion in others. 

The Irwins encourage people across Australia and around the world to wear khaki clothing to show their love for Irwin on the 15th - the color of the uniform Irwin almost always wore. According to the Steve Irwin Day website,  “Khaki is more than a colour. It’s an attitude. It’s a stand to do something positive in our world and a passion to make a difference.” The Australia Zoo sponsors the conservation group Wildlife Warriors, established by the Irwins in 2002 to help wildlife and habitat around the world. The organization rescues wildlife during crises such as tsunamis, educates communities, conserves habitat, and researches crocodiles worldwide – one of Steve’s great loves. You can even buy Wildlife Warrior wristbands through Animal Planet to support the organization and show your support.

The plight of koalas is one of Wildlife Warriors' most pressing issues. The species is listed by the government as "vulnerable" in the southeast Queensland bioregion, but are truly threatened throughout their range by two devastating diseases – koala retrovirus and Chlamydia. I wrote about the Wildlife Hospital and Hangar’s passion for saving koalas in my article, Will Urban Sprawl K.O. the Koala?  as he continues to honor Irwin's legacy. Some 6,000 wildlife patients come through the hospital every year, many of which are koalas hit by cars or attacked by dogs. Australia has an amazing network of volunteer wildlife ambulances and animal rehabilitators that even wake up in the dark of night to rescue car-struck animals, and bring them into hospitals such as the one at the Australia Zoo. Hangar sequenced the genome of koala retrovirus, performs surgery on koalas and other animal, and is a passionate conservationist in his own right. The Irwin family is also working hard to “Save Steve’s Place” – the 330,000-acre Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Queensland's Cape York peninsula, a wetland area threatened by strip mining.

To celebrate Steve Irwin Day, the Zoo has sent out into the world twelve Joey Ambassadors, young people passionate about wildlife who want to make a difference like Irwin did. They come from Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and the USA and will try to meet challenges in the weeks leading up to Steve Irwin Day, such as gathering 15 books to donate to a school in Tanzania, getting a local school to host a Khaki Day, and raise funds for wildlife and habitat conservation. Ten year old Jacob Danko of Pennsylvania is one of those ambassadors, an animal lover and Steve Irwin fan from Pennsylvania. The primary focus of Steve Irwin Day is fundraising for wildlife conservation andif you're passionate about wildlife you can donate to Wildlife Warriors here.

What will you do to remember Steve on his special day? What are your favorite memories of Steve's legacy, and the Crocodile Hunter series?

Funky new ghostshark species found

11/12/2009

The Eastern Pacific black ghostshark, a chimaera, is new to science/ Photo Courtesy Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

Science has a new cartilaginous fish species, “a big weird looking freaky thing,” says Ichthyologist Douglas Long, Research Associate from the California Academy of Sciences and the Curator of the Oakland Museum of California, who helped describe the species. “They have some shark characteristics and they have some that are very non-shark.” For starters, this guy has a sex organ on its head.

Kelsey James, a student with Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) named and described this funky fish in a recent issue of the scientific journal Zootaxa, along with MLML research faculty David Ebert, Millersville University biology professor Dominique Didier Dagit, and Long. The Eastern Pacific black ghostshark (Hydrolagus melanophasma) lives off the coast of southern California and Baja, Mexico in deep ocean water within the Gulf of California, preferring soft-bottom ocean floor, with an occasional cobble patches; other Hydrolagus species seem to prefer rocky areas with a lot of vertical relief.

Scientists had captured several specimens of this purplish-black ghostshark over the years, as far back as the 1960s, but it took time to figure out whether it represented a unique species. Not only did biologists collect specimens, they also observed and videotaped the ghostshark alive in the Sea of Cortez using a deep water submersible.

The cartilaginous fish (Class Chondrichthyes) lineage includes the sharks and rays, but the chimaera lineage diverged evolutionary from them nearly 400 million years ago. Ghostsharks get called many names, including chimaera, rabbitfish, and ratfish. Like sharks, they have skeletons made of flexible cartilage and use “claspers” for internal fertilization as opposed to laying eggs like most bony fish. Like sharks, they have sandpaper-like skin that has interlocking “placoid” scales, unique from the scales of bony fish. Unlike sharks, chimaeras lay eggs encased in leathery shells that some call a “mermaid’s purse.” And they stand alone from sharks in having a retractable club-shaped appendage emerging the males' foreheads, called a tentaculum, used during sex. According to Dagit, it's not used to transfer gametes but to grasp the female. You can watch a short video of the new ghostshark here, taken on a remote operated vehicle (ROV) by scientists at MBARI.

Paleontologists have documented many, diverse species of chimaera throughout the fossil record, but in the modern world we live in, they’ve been somewhat elusive. Scientists have recently found new species in remote little-explored locales as more and more expeditions explore the deep sea. The co-authors of this study, Didier, Ebert, and Long had named two new ghostsharks frin the deep water off of the Galapagos Islands in 2006.

Albatrosses feed on giant garbage patch

11/11/2009

Have you read about the gigantic patch of garbage - mostly plastic - floating in the Pacific Ocean? When I say gigantic, I mean huge, ginormous, massive, sprawling, mind-blowingly large. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch actually consists of two patches, in fact: the Western Garbage Patch east of Japan and west of Hawaii, and the Eastern Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California. The Eastern patch alone is twice the size of Texas. Holy mackeroli.

Though the two patches lie 6,000 miles apart, a current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone connects them. Each plastic patch swirl in gyres due to ocean currents, and has created an ocean "desert" devoid of most life. Learning about this issue is part of why I chose to take the No Plastics Pledge, as I mentioned in my first post to this blog, The Great Turtle Race is On! It took me several months to remember my reusable grocery bags from my car, but I finally got the hang of it! I have also replaced my use of water bottles with a thermos I carry with me and send my kids to school with lunch boxes instead of plastic bags. I haven't totally eliminated plastic but am working on reducing my use of it day by day.

So that brings me to today's topic. In the for Discovery Channel Animal News article, Remote Albatrosses Feed on Ocean Garbage Patch, Jennifer Viegas reports on a recently published scientific study that shows these giant oceanic seabirds feed their babies plastic from the Western Garbage Patch! Laysan albatrosses nesting on the remote Kure atoll in the Pacigfic Ocean feed their chicks ten times more plastic than those nesting in Oahu, Hawaii. The reason? The adults forage on the garbage patch, and inadvertently bring back plastic trash to their chicks. The plastic can kill birds when it punctures their intestinal tract, or blocks digestion. Toxins from the plastic are suspected in wildlife cancers and disease, as well.

Saving Malayan flying foxes

11/10/2009

Jonathan Epstein with the Wildlife Trust releases a Malayan flying fox/Copyright © 2009 Wlldlife Trust

The Malayan flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus), doesn’t look like your ordinary bat. They eat fruit rather than insects, have large eyes, and a huge wing span of up to five feet across. Parents might know of the beloved children's book, Stellaluna, which features a flying fox, also known as fruit bat, as the main character. Or did you see the animated movie Ferngully? The character Batty Koda was also a flying fox. Megabats live throughout the “Old World” of Australia, Indonesia, and islands off of Africa, and unlike microbats, they don’t echolocate.

Because of their large size, people have overhunted fruit bats for food, and some have gone extinct or currently face extinction. That’s the case of the Malayan flying fox, the largest flying fox species, which is listed as near-threatened in the IUCN Red List. They live throughout Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Flying foxes play important ecological roles as seed dispersers of the fruit they eat, and in some cases they also pollinate flowers. Their decline would have repercussions throughout the ecosystems in which they live.

A new study led by Jonathan Epstein of the Wildlife Trust became the first to look at the effect of hunting on these giant bats in Malaysia. They monitored 33 roosting sites in peninsular Malaysia over three years, analyzed hunting license sales to figure out whether the bats were being sustainably harvested, or not, and outfitted Malayan flying foxes with satellite telemetry collars to see where they went. 

According to the findings over the past three years, some 87,800 bats were hunted between 2002 and 2005, and using conservative baseline population estimates of 100,000, 250,000 and 500,000 bats in Malaysia (the exact numbers remain unknown), they found that at any of those values, current hunting levels appear to be unsustainable and could cause the species to go extinct in peninsular Malaysia. On top of the officially reported numbers, farmers sometimes kill bats as pests, plus there’s some illegal hunting activity, and those values are not included in the stats.

Epstein and his colleagues fitted seven adult male bats with satellite telemetry collars, and their results showed - for the first time - that these enigmatic mammals fly long distances between neighboring nations.  Some individuals flew hundreds of miles, beyond peninsular Malaysia all the way to Thailand and Indonesia.

Epstein and his colleagues believe neighboring nations should work together to ensure the migratory animals get managed sustainably so the species does not decline and go extinct. Perhaps these animals should have an international treaty protecting them akin to the one protecting migratory birds. Epstein and his colleagues recommended a temporary ban on hunting in Malaysia to more closely assess the situation. Officials from the Malaysian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (PERHILITAN), who participated in the research, have decided to review current hunting policy due to the new study.

British naturalist and author Gerald Durrell, founded the Wildlife Trust in 1971. I remember reading Durrell’s hilarious books about wildlife when I first visited Australia in 1990 as a college student. The Trust now supports wildlife research around the world.

Endangered Mississippi Sandhill Cranes get a boost

11/09/2009

Three endangered Mississippi sandhill cranes Credit US Fish & Wildlife Service

Starting at the crack of dawn Friday, November 6th, some 25 to 30 volunteers hid in blinds throughout the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge's wetland pine savanna to count and identify individuals by looking for colored bands around each crane’s long legs. The crane count not only provides refuge staff with critical information about the endangered birds' habitat use, but also allows volunteers who have a passion for birds to get a close-up view. They observes the birds for five hours, between 5am and 10am. "It is a snapshot survey of the population that allows us to track population trends over the years," says Refuge Ranger Emily Neidigh.

This was the first refuge established specifically to help an endangered species; Mississippi sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis pulla) are a critically endangered subspecies of the wide-ranging sandhill crane that have distinct coloration, behavior, and genetics. The refuge, initially established in 1975, is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, near Gautier, and currently consists of over 19,000 acres in four separate units.

In addition to the crane count, last week biologists released ten captive-reared Mississippi sandhill cranes onto the refuge.  Only 100 individuals of this subspecies remain in the wild, and a mere five percent of the original acreage of pine savanna habitat remains along the Gulf Coastal Plain. The flock lives only on the refuge and on private lands surrounding it, but the good news is the flock has increased from an all-time low of 30 to 35 in the mid-1970s - albeit ever so slowly.

Ten young cranes, between five and six months old, were released using two different methods so biologists could determine which works best. "We're still refining our release techniques to give the cranes the best chance at survival and incorporation into the wild population," said Scott Hereford, Refuge Supervisory Wildlife Biologist. 

The first group of six, reared at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species in New Orleans, Louisiana, got introduced into an enclosure where they’ll stay for 30 days with wing restraints as part of a gradual or "acclimated" release. This allows other wild birds to interact with them, since others can fly into the pen but the young cranes can't fly out. until the wing restraints are removed. It also lets the young cranes get used to the area and develop site fidelity. "They were socialized prior to transfer to the refuge to develop group cohesion, thereby increasing survival, mimicking the tendency for wild subadults to form groups of three to seven," says Hereford. Five of these six crane chicks were “costume reared” by humans using crane suits and puppets on their hands.

"Caretakers are costumed the entire time we are raising the chicks, from hatching to the point that they get transferred to the refuge," explains Megan Savoie, Crane Program Coordinator for the Audubon Center.  Like all birds, cranes imprint on the first thing they see, so in order to avoid the crane chicks imprinting on a human, biologists use crane puppets to feed them when the chick is young. One of the six cranes in the enclosure was reared by crane parents but then socialized with the other crane chicks.

The second group of four cranes got released directly onto the refuge, without any enclosure or wing restraints. All four of these birds were reared at the White Oak Conservation Center in Yulee, Florida. Two got released together, near other individuals from the wild flock. The other two of the four got released individually in different parts of the refuge, but each near other wild birds.

"Nearly all the releases thus far have been via the acclimated release. It was developed here, and has been used in crane releases elsewhere," says Hereford. "We've rarely used direct releases, but I thought I'd try a few since it would have the advantage of allowing cranes to more quickly colonize new areas - no big expensive pen needed. We hope direct releases will be another tool in our toolkit of techniques in recovery efforts for the endangered Mississippi sandhill crane." It will be intriguing to see how the released cranes fare in the future!