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Pilot in Crane Suit Guides Endangered Birds 1,200 Miles to Florida
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Moneycontrol•24-09-2026, 10:00
Pilot in Crane Suit Guides Endangered Birds 1,200 Miles to Florida
- •For 15 years, a pilot dressed as a whooping crane flew an ultralight aircraft 1,200 miles from Wisconsin to Florida to teach endangered whooping cranes a migration route.
- •The program, started in 2001 by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, aimed to establish a migratory population of whooping cranes in the eastern US, as the species had lost its natural migration knowledge.
- •Chicks were exposed to ultralight sounds in the egg, and handlers in crane costumes used puppets to interact with them, teaching them to follow the aircraft from the ground to flight.
- •The first experimental migration in 2001 proved successful, with a trained crane completing an independent return flight in 2006 and hatching the first wild-born chick of the new flock.
- •The ultralight technique was discontinued after 2015, deemed too artificial for a long-term solution, as conservationists sought more natural learning methods for the birds.
Key Questions Answered
Pilots wore specialized crane costumes and flew ultralight aircraft to act as surrogate parents for captive-bred whooping cranes, teaching them the 1,200-mile migration route from Wisconsin to Florida.
The first experimental migration took place in October 2001, when whooping cranes were guided by ultralight aircraft from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.
The ultralight technique was discontinued after the 2015 migration season because conservationists and the US Fish and Wildlife Service deemed it too artificial as a long-term solution, preferring that young birds learn from older cranes instead.
