Migrating cranes follow the airplane leader

November 1, 2000
Web posted at: 4:09 PM EST (2109 GMT)

From Brian Cabell
CNN Correspondent

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CARROLLTON, Georgia (CNN) -- A group of Sandhill Cranes has some unusual help migrating from Canada to Florida this year -- an ultra-light airplane that leads the flock.

The non-profit organization hosting the air show, Operation Migration, hopes to teach rare types of cranes and other birds less threatening routes for their annual long distance flights.

The ultra-light plane acts a surrogate mom for a dozen cranes, hatched and raised at a research facility away from their real mothers. Now they must learn how to migrate south for the winter.

Flying alongside the plane, the birds cover up to 80 miles a day. Recently they stopped near the rural town of Carrollton, Georgia, about an hour's drive west of Atlanta.

Why do the cranes follow the plane? The phenomenon is called imprinting. From day one, the baby birds were brought up around the ultra-lights and their pilots, whom they trusted like a mother. Incidentally, smocks cover the pilots so the birds do not become reliant on humans.

If this situation seems similar to the movie "Fly Away Home," it is. The film was inspired by the founder of Operation Migration.

"With this migration, we'll actually identify the route and establish all the protocol for the trip and actually see if we can lead birds 1,250 miles. It's the longest migration ever attempted," said Operation Migration's Joe Duff.

The cranes are flying from a refuge in Wisconsin, where they were raised, to a refuge along the coast in Florida. The migration should take about a month. This flight is a dress rehearsal for a planned migration along the same route of a group of Whopping Cranes.

Whooping cranes, unlike their Sandhill cousins, are an endangered species. There are only about 400 in the world. They have lost their wetland habitats to development over the years. They have also been killed by power lines and hunters. Wildlife experts are now raising them in captivity in the hopes of increasing their numbers.

But when the baby whooping cranes are ready to migrate, they, like the Sandhills, will need a mother. The ultra-light will again play the part.

Officials used Sandhill cranes for this first, experimental flight because they did not want to risk losing any of the rare whooping cranes along the way.

Once the cranes reach their winter destination, will they be able to find their way back to Wisconsin and then back again to Florida? Apparently so.

"All of the research to date has proven that that works. We show them the route. They don't learn the route we show them, but they know to get back," said Operation Migration's Bill Lishman.

Audubon sanctuary awaits crane migration
March 8, 1999
Groups cite successes of Endangered Species Act
June 10, 1999
Plane-guided whooping cranes 'Fly Away Home'
October 22, 1997

Operation Migration
  • Migratory Map

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