Description
A large bird with a height of about 150 cm and a wingspan of 210-240 cm. Males are slightly larger than females, their weight averages 7.3 kg, while females weigh 6.4 kg. The plumage is completely snow-white, with the exception of the black tips of the primary flight feathers on the wings and the black whiskers radiating on either side of the beak. The flight feathers of the third order are noticeably elongated and fall behind in the form of a train. There are no feathers on the top of the head, the skin in this place is dark red. The cornea of the eyes is golden yellow. The beak is yellowish, sometimes at the end it has a dull green tint. Legs are black. Sexual dimorphism (visible differences between males and females) is not pronounced. Young cranes are noticeably different from adult birds - their body is completely covered with feathers, including their head. The plumage, with the exception of the flight wings, is white with numerous rufous spots, which gradually decrease with age and then disappear. The flight feathers of young birds are dark gray. The eye color of the chicks is blue.
Spreading
Whooping cranes are now critically endangered and their population is limited to a very small area of North America. The remaining birds nest in the area of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada's Northwest Territories, where they were accidentally discovered in 1954 by a ranger and a helicopter pilot, and in winter they migrate to the Gulf Coast in the Aransas Reserve in the US state of Texas.
However, numerous fossil finds indicate that whooping cranes were widespread in North America several million years ago during the Pleistocene, with a range extending from central Canada in the north to Mexico in the south and from Utah in the west to the Atlantic Coast in the east . A sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes occurred in the second half of the 19th century, which is associated with human economic activity and uncontrolled hunting. As a result, the number of birds decreased to only 10-12 pairs, which were discovered in 1954 in a remote area.
With the exception of a small group of birds leading a sedentary lifestyle in southwestern Louisiana, the nesting sites of whooping cranes were displaced from the United States at the end of the 19th century. The remaining Louisiana population disappeared completely by the mid-20th century, with the last remaining birds being removed for captivity in 1950.
Lifestyle
Previously, the whooping crane lived in a fairly wide range of different biotopes. Until its population collapse, it nested primarily in the tallgrass prairies of the upper Midwest and aspen thickets in eastern Canada. However, its nests could be found in the completely distinct taiga and subarctic Northwest Territories of Canada, as well as on the marshy Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States. Although a common feature of the winter sites of all these ecosystems was the presence of wetlands, their character varied significantly from the marshes in the mountainous terrain of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Texas and South Carolina. In addition, migrating populations had a fairly large number of diverse routes to their winter stopover sites.
Nutrition
Whooping cranes are omnivores - they feed on both plant and animal foods. During the breeding season, their main diet consists of molluscs, crustaceans, insects, small freshwater fish, frogs and snakes. During winter migration they feed in various conditions: on arable land sown with corn, wheat or sorghum; in the middle of large and small swamps, along the banks of lakes and reservoirs, on river shallows.
Reproduction
Like other species of cranes, a successful couple celebrates their union with a joint characteristic singing, which is a series of complex drawn-out melodic sounds. When singing, cranes take a vertical position, usually throwing their heads back so that the beak is directed vertically upward. In whooping cranes, the female initiates the song, producing two high-pitched sounds in response to each single lower sound from the male. In this case, the male spreads his wings while the female keeps them folded. During courtship, cranes dance, which can be expressed in jumping, running, tossing tufts of grass or sticks and flapping their wings. The nesting territory can vary quite significantly and ranges from 1.3 to 47.1 km².
The nest is built directly in water with a depth of 14-28 cm in shallow water, in the middle of small lakes or in water meadows and is a well-compacted pile of reeds, sedges or other marsh grass with a small depression at the top. There are always areas with water around the nest that are difficult to reach for land predators. Egg laying occurs in May, the female usually lays 2 eggs (in less than 10% of cases 1 egg) measuring 10.8x6 cm and weighing about 207 g with a break of 2-3 days. The incubation period lasts 29-30 days. Both parents incubate, but the female spends most of her time in the nest. As a rule, only one chick survives before winter migration, as competition for survival begins between the two chicks, ending with the death of one of them. Whooping cranes begin to fly in 80-90 days. Sexual maturity of young birds occurs after 4-5 years.
Threats and security
The main reasons for the sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes are said to be a decrease in the area of land suitable for these birds to live in, as well as environmental pollution. In addition, destructive factors include oil production near the Aransas Reserve, disruption of the natural freshwater circulation system, increased tourism, injuries from collisions with power lines, illegal hunting of these birds, avian tuberculosis and poor genetic biodiversity due to the small number of surviving birds.
Since the early 1970s, with the formation of the International Crane Fund and subsequent restoration programs, the situation has slowly begun to change for the better. Projects have been established at the foundation's nursery in Wisconsin to artificially breed these and other rare species of cranes and then introduce them into the wild. Currently, these programs are bearing fruit - the number of birds has increased to 400 individuals.
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Excerpt characterizing the Whooping Crane
“Oh, here she is,” said Ilya Andreich, seeing Natasha enter. - Well, sit down with me. “But Natasha stopped next to her mother, looking around, as if she was looking for something.- Mother! - she said. “Give it to me, give it to me, mom, quickly, quickly,” and again she could hardly hold back her sobs.
She sat down at the table and listened to the conversations of the elders and Nikolai, who also came to the table. “My God, my God, the same faces, the same conversations, dad holding the cup in the same way and blowing in the same way!” thought Natasha, feeling with horror the disgust rising in her against everyone at home because they were still the same.
After tea, Nikolai, Sonya and Natasha went to the sofa, to their favorite corner, where their most intimate conversations always began.
“It happens to you,” Natasha said to her brother when they sat down in the sofa, “it happens to you that it seems to you that nothing will happen - nothing; what was all that was good? And not just boring, but sad?
- And how! - he said. “It happened to me that everything was fine, everyone was cheerful, but it would come to my mind that I was already tired of all this and that everyone needed to die.” Once I didn’t go to the regiment for a walk, but there was music playing there... and so I suddenly became bored...
- Oh, I know that. I know, I know,” Natasha picked up. – I was still little, this happened to me. Do you remember, once I was punished for plums and you all danced, and I sat in the classroom and sobbed, I will never forget: I was sad and I felt sorry for everyone, and myself, and I felt sorry for everyone. And, most importantly, it wasn’t my fault,” Natasha said, “do you remember?
“I remember,” said Nikolai. “I remember that I came to you later and I wanted to console you and, you know, I was ashamed. We were terribly funny. I had a bobblehead toy then and I wanted to give it to you. Do you remember?
“Do you remember,” Natasha said with a thoughtful smile, how long ago, long ago, we were still very little, an uncle called us into the office, back in the old house, and it was dark - we came and suddenly there was standing there...
“Arap,” Nikolai finished with a joyful smile, “how can I not remember?” Even now I don’t know that it was a blackamoor, or we saw it in a dream, or we were told.
- He was gray, remember, and had white teeth - he stood and looked at us...
– Do you remember, Sonya? - Nikolai asked...
“Yes, yes, I remember something too,” Sonya answered timidly...
“I asked my father and mother about this blackamoor,” said Natasha. - They say that there was no blackamoor. But you remember!
- Oh, how I remember his teeth now.
- How strange it is, it was like a dream. I like it.
“Do you remember how we were rolling eggs in the hall and suddenly two old women began to spin around on the carpet?” Was it or not? Do you remember how good it was?
- Yes. Do you remember how dad in a blue fur coat fired a gun on the porch? “They turned over, smiling with pleasure, memories, not sad old ones, but poetic youthful memories, those impressions from the most distant past, where dreams merge with reality, and laughed quietly, rejoicing at something.
Sonya, as always, lagged behind them, although their memories were common.
Sonya did not remember much of what they remembered, and what she did remember did not arouse in her the poetic feeling that they experienced. She only enjoyed their joy, trying to imitate it.
She took part only when they remembered Sonya's first visit. Sonya told how she was afraid of Nikolai, because he had strings on his jacket, and the nanny told her that they would sew her into strings too.
“And I remember: they told me that you were born under cabbage,” said Natasha, “and I remember that I didn’t dare not believe it then, but I knew that it wasn’t true, and I was so embarrassed.”
During this conversation, the maid's head poked out of the back door of the sofa room. “Miss, they brought the rooster,” the girl said in a whisper.
“No need, Polya, tell me to carry it,” said Natasha.
In the middle of the conversations going on in the sofa, Dimmler entered the room and approached the harp that stood in the corner. He took off the cloth and the harp made a false sound.
“Eduard Karlych, please play my beloved Nocturiene by Monsieur Field,” said the voice of the old countess from the living room.
Dimmler struck a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nikolai and Sonya, said: “Young people, how quietly they sit!”
“Yes, we are philosophizing,” Natasha said, looking around for a minute and continuing the conversation. The conversation was now about dreams.
Dimmer started to play. Natasha silently, on tiptoe, walked up to the table, took the candle, took it out and, returning, quietly sat down in her place. It was dark in the room, especially on the sofa on which they were sitting, but through the large windows the silver light of the full moon fell onto the floor.
“You know, I think,” Natasha said in a whisper, moving closer to Nikolai and Sonya, when Dimmler had already finished and was still sitting, weakly plucking the strings, apparently indecisive to leave or start something new, “that when you remember like that, you remember, you remember everything.” , you remember so much that you remember what happened before I was in the world...
“This is Metampsic,” said Sonya, who always studied well and remembered everything. – The Egyptians believed that our souls were in animals and would go back to animals.
“No, you know, I don’t believe it, that we were animals,” Natasha said in the same whisper, although the music had ended, “but I know for sure that we were angels here and there somewhere, and that’s why we remember everything.” ...
-Can I join you? - said Dimmler, who approached quietly and sat down next to them.
- If we were angels, then why did we fall lower? - said Nikolai. - No, this cannot be!
“Not lower, who told you that lower?... Why do I know what I was before,” Natasha objected with conviction. - After all, the soul is immortal... therefore, if I live forever, that’s how I lived before, lived for all eternity.
“Yes, but it’s hard for us to imagine eternity,” said Dimmler, who approached the young people with a meek, contemptuous smile, but now spoke as quietly and seriously as they did.
– Why is it difficult to imagine eternity? – Natasha said. - Today it will be, tomorrow it will be, it will always be and yesterday it was and yesterday it was...
- Natasha! now it's your turn. “Sing me something,” the countess’s voice was heard. - That you sat down like conspirators.
- Mother! “I don’t want to do that,” Natasha said, but at the same time she stood up.
All of them, even the middle-aged Dimmler, did not want to interrupt the conversation and leave the corner of the sofa, but Natasha stood up, and Nikolai sat down at the clavichord. As always, standing in the middle of the hall and choosing the most advantageous place for resonance, Natasha began to sing her mother’s favorite piece.
She said that she did not want to sing, but she had not sung for a long time before, and for a long time since, the way she sang that evening. Count Ilya Andreich, from the office where he was talking with Mitinka, heard her singing, and like a student, in a hurry to go play, finishing the lesson, he got confused in his words, giving orders to the manager and finally fell silent, and Mitinka, also listening, silently with a smile, stood in front of count. Nikolai did not take his eyes off his sister, and took a breath with her. Sonya, listening, thought about what a huge difference there was between her and her friend and how impossible it was for her to be even remotely as charming as her cousin. The old countess sat with a happily sad smile and tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She thought about Natasha, and about her youth, and about how there was something unnatural and terrible in this upcoming marriage of Natasha with Prince Andrei.
Dimmler sat down next to the countess and closed his eyes, listening.
“No, Countess,” he said finally, “this is a European talent, she has nothing to learn, this softness, tenderness, strength...”
Class - Birds / Subclass - New palates / Superorder - Craniformes
History of the study
The whooping crane (lat. Grus americana) is a large bird, the rarest species of the family of true cranes, its population currently amounts to only about 400 individuals. Lives in North America.
Spreading
Whooping cranes are now critically endangered and their population is limited to a very small area of North America. The remaining birds nest in the area of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada's Northwest Territories, where they were accidentally discovered in 1954 by a ranger and a helicopter pilot, and in the winter migrate to the Gulf Coast in the Aransas Reserve in the US state of Texas. However, numerous fossil finds indicate that whooping cranes were widespread in North America several million years ago during the Pleistocene, with a range extending from central Canada in the north to Mexico in the south and from Utah in the west to the Atlantic Coast in the east. . A sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes occurred in the second half of the 19th century, which is associated with human economic activity and uncontrolled hunting. As a result, the number of birds decreased to only 10-12 pairs, which were discovered in 1954 in a remote area. With the exception of a small group of birds leading a sedentary lifestyle in southwestern Louisiana, the nesting sites of whooping cranes were displaced from the United States at the end of the 19th century. The remaining Louisiana population disappeared completely by the mid-20th century, with the last remaining birds being removed for captivity in 1950.
Appearance
The height of the whooping crane is about one and a half meters, and its wingspan is up to two and a half meters. This is a truly huge bird, which is quite difficult not to notice. Male whooping cranes are larger than females. The male weighs slightly more than seven kilograms, while the female weighs one kilogram less than the male. In terms of its color, the whooping crane is an amazingly beautiful bird. Its plumage is snow-white, and its mustache is black. Some of the flight feathers are also black. Also, flight feathers (but different ones) adorn the whooping crane, hanging from behind like a train. This gives the bird an “elegant” look. It is interesting that on the top of the whooping crane's head there is no plumage at all, and the skin color is dark red. But young representatives of whooping cranes have a head completely covered with feathers, so we can say that the crane “goes bald” with age. The whooping crane's eyes are golden yellow. The beak is also yellow. The legs of this bird are black. Females and males of whooping cranes are practically no different from each other.
Reproduction
When a male and female create a pair, they sing together, which is quite melodic and varied. As a rule, in this song, birds point their beaks directly to the sky. The female begins to sing first, and the male joins her. It is curious that during singing, the male and female behave differently - the female’s wings remain folded, while the male proudly spreads them to their full width. It is interesting to watch the games of a male and a female, a kind of courtship. They jump around each other and flap their wings. The whooping crane builds its nest in the water, but, of course, not on turbulent river streams, but in bays and lakes (for example, in the Gulf of Mexico: North America). As a rule, the water depth does not exceed thirty centimeters. But when the water rises, the nest can float on its surface without drowning. The nest of a whooping crane is a compacted reed or other grass that grows in a swamp. In appearance, the nest is an ordinary heap, but on top of this “heap” there is a depression. Nature conceived this arrangement of the crane’s home in order to somehow protect the bird from some predators. Sexual maturity in these birds occurs at the age of about five years. The female whooping crane lays her clutch in the month of May, and lays no more than two eggs, and sometimes even one. The female lays the second egg two or three days after the first. The weight of one egg is about two hundred grams. The clutch is incubated by both the female and the male (the female for a longer period of time). The incubation period lasts about a month. The cubs are born completely covered with white down (the feathers of an adult crane are black, those of the cubs are light gray), with blue eyes. Unfortunately, the fact that the female lays two eggs does not give a good result in increasing the population, since with the arrival of winter one of the chicks dies from lack of food - the older, stronger one kills the younger one in the fight for food. Young birds begin to fly only after three months. Naturally, it takes them some time to master flight techniques.
Lifestyle
Previously, the whooping crane lived in a fairly wide range of different biotopes. Until its population collapse, it nested primarily in the tallgrass prairies of the upper Midwest and aspen thickets in eastern Canada. However, its nests could be found in the completely distinct taiga and subarctic Northwest Territories of Canada, as well as on the marshy Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States. Although a common feature of the winter sites of all these ecosystems was the presence of wetlands, the nature of wetlands varied significantly from the marshes in the mountainous terrain of Mexico to the Atlantic coasts of Texas and South Carolina. In addition, migrating populations had a fairly large number of diverse routes to their winter stopover sites.
Nutrition
Whooping cranes are omnivores - they feed on both plant and animal foods. During the breeding season, their main diet consists of mollusks, crustaceans, insects, small freshwater fish, frogs and snakes. During winter migration they feed in various conditions: on arable land sown with corn, wheat or sorghum; in the middle of large and small swamps, along the banks of lakes and reservoirs, on river shallows.
Number
Once upon a time, the whooping crane was found in Canada (North America), the United States of America and Mexico (Latin America). Now the species of this crane is very rare, due to the small number of individuals. And although the whooping crane is listed in the International Red Book, scientists still fear that this species may be included in the list of extinct species of our planet. The reason for the decline in the whooping crane population was hunting. Back in the second half of the nineteenth century, this crane became a target for humans because of its beauty and its meat. Already in the second half of the twentieth century, part of the remaining cranes (there were only about ten pairs of them) had to be taken away for breeding and keeping in captivity. But hunting is not the only reason why the number of whooping cranes has declined catastrophically. Thus, the reduction in the area where this bird lives and environmental pollution also played a significant role.
| Taxonomy on Wikispecies | Images on Wikimedia Commons |
|
Description
A large bird with a height of about 150 cm and a wingspan of 210-240 cm. Males are slightly larger than females, their weight averages 7.3 kg, while females weigh 6.4 kg. The plumage is completely snow-white, with the exception of the black tips of the primary flight feathers on the wings and the black whiskers radiating on either side of the beak. The flight feathers of the third order are noticeably elongated and fall behind in the form of a train. There are no feathers on the top of the head, the skin in this place is dark red. The cornea of the eyes is golden yellow. The beak is yellowish, sometimes at the end it has a dull green tint. Legs are black. Sexual dimorphism (visible differences between males and females) is not pronounced. Young cranes are noticeably different from adult birds - their body is completely covered with feathers, including their head. The plumage, with the exception of the flight wings, is white with numerous rufous spots, which gradually decrease with age and then disappear. The flight feathers of young birds are dark gray. The eye color of the chicks is blue.
Spreading
Whooping cranes are now critically endangered and their population is limited to a very small area of North America. The remaining birds nest in the area of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada's Northwest Territories, where they were accidentally discovered in 1954 by a ranger and a helicopter pilot, and in winter they migrate to the Gulf Coast in the Aransas Reserve in the US state of Texas.
However, numerous fossil finds indicate that whooping cranes were widespread in North America several million years ago during the Pleistocene, with a range extending from central Canada in the north to Mexico in the south and from Utah in the west to the Atlantic Coast in the east . A sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes occurred in the second half of the 19th century, which is associated with human economic activity and uncontrolled hunting. As a result, the number of birds decreased to only 10-12 pairs, which were discovered in 1954 in a remote area.
With the exception of a small group of birds leading a sedentary lifestyle in southwestern Louisiana, the nesting sites of whooping cranes were displaced from the United States at the end of the 19th century. The remaining Louisiana population disappeared completely by the mid-20th century, with the last remaining birds being removed for captivity in 1950.
Lifestyle
Previously, the whooping crane lived in a fairly wide range of different biotopes. Until its population collapse, it nested primarily in the tallgrass prairies of the upper Midwest and aspen thickets in eastern Canada. However, its nests could be found in the completely distinct taiga and subarctic Northwest Territories of Canada, as well as on the marshy Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States. Although a common feature of the winter sites of all these ecosystems was the presence of wetlands, their character varied significantly from the marshes in the mountainous terrain of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Texas and South Carolina. In addition, migrating populations had a fairly large number of diverse routes to their winter stopover sites.
Nutrition
Whooping cranes are omnivores - they feed on both plant and animal foods. During the breeding season, their main diet consists of molluscs, crustaceans, insects, small freshwater fish, frogs and snakes. During winter migration they feed in various conditions: on arable land sown with corn, wheat or sorghum; in the middle of large and small swamps, along the banks of lakes and reservoirs, on river shallows.
Reproduction
Juvenile Whooping Crane
Like other species of cranes, a successful couple celebrates their union with a joint characteristic singing, which is a series of complex drawn-out melodic sounds. When singing, cranes take a vertical position, usually throwing their heads back so that the beak is directed vertically upward. In whooping cranes, the female initiates the song, producing two high-pitched sounds in response to each single lower sound from the male. In this case, the male spreads his wings while the female keeps them folded. During courtship, cranes dance, which can be expressed in jumping, running, tossing tufts of grass or sticks and flapping their wings. The nesting territory can vary quite significantly and ranges from 1.3 to 47.1 km².
The nest is built directly in water with a depth of 14-28 cm in shallow water, in the middle of small lakes or in water meadows and is a well-compacted pile of reeds, sedges or other marsh grass with a small depression at the top. There are always areas with water around the nest that are difficult to reach for land predators. Egg laying occurs in May, the female usually lays 2 eggs (in less than 10% of cases 1 egg) measuring 10.8x6 cm and weighing about 207 g with a break of 2-3 days. The incubation period lasts 29-30 days. Both parents incubate, but the female spends most of her time in the nest. As a rule, only one chick survives before winter migration, as competition for survival begins between the two chicks, ending with the death of one of them. Whooping cranes begin to fly in 80-90 days. Sexual maturity of young birds occurs after 4-5 years.
Threats and security
The main reasons for the sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes are said to be a decrease in the area of land suitable for these birds to live in, as well as environmental pollution. In addition, destructive factors include oil production near the Aransas Reserve, disruption of the natural freshwater circulation system, increased tourism, injuries from collisions with power lines, illegal hunting of these birds, avian tuberculosis and poor genetic biodiversity due to the small number of surviving birds.
Since the early 1970s, with the formation of the International Crane Fund and subsequent restoration programs, the situation has slowly begun to change for the better. Projects have been established at the foundation's nursery in Wisconsin to artificially breed these and other rare species of cranes and then introduce them into the wild. Currently, these programs are bearing fruit - the number of birds has increased to 400 individuals.
Grus americana (Linnaeus, )
| Taxonomy on Wikispecies |
Images on Wikimedia Commons |
|
Description
A large bird with a height of about 150 cm and a wingspan of 210-240 cm. Males are slightly larger than females, their weight averages 7.3 kg, while females weigh 6.4 kg. The plumage is completely snow-white, with the exception of the black tips of the primary flight feathers on the wings and the black whiskers radiating on either side of the beak. The flight feathers of the third order are noticeably elongated and fall behind in the form of a train. There are no feathers on the top of the head, the skin in this place is dark red. The cornea of the eyes is golden yellow. The beak is yellowish, sometimes at the end it has a dull green tint. Legs are black. Sexual dimorphism (visible differences between males and females) is not pronounced. Young cranes are noticeably different from adult birds - their body is completely covered with feathers, including their head. The plumage, with the exception of the flight wings, is white with numerous rufous spots, which gradually decrease with age and then disappear. The flight feathers of young birds are dark gray. The eye color of the chicks is blue.
Spreading
Whooping cranes are now critically endangered and their population is limited to a very small area of North America. The remaining birds nest in the area of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada's Northwest Territories, where they were accidentally discovered in 1954 by a ranger and a helicopter pilot, and in winter they migrate to the Gulf Coast in the Aransas Reserve in the US state of Texas.
However, numerous fossil finds indicate that whooping cranes were widespread in North America several million years ago during the Pleistocene, with a range extending from central Canada in the north to Mexico in the south and from Utah in the west to the Atlantic Coast in the east . A sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes occurred in the second half of the 19th century, which is associated with human economic activity and uncontrolled hunting. As a result, the number of birds decreased to only 10-12 pairs, which were discovered in 1954 in a remote area.
With the exception of a small group of birds leading a sedentary lifestyle in southwestern Louisiana, the nesting sites of whooping cranes were displaced from the United States at the end of the 19th century. The remaining Louisiana population disappeared completely by the mid-20th century, with the last remaining birds being removed for captivity in 1950.
Lifestyle
Previously, the whooping crane lived in a fairly wide range of different biotopes. Until its population collapse, it nested primarily in the tallgrass prairies of the upper Midwest and aspen thickets in eastern Canada. However, its nests could be found in the completely distinct taiga and subarctic Northwest Territories of Canada, as well as on the marshy Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States. Although a common feature of the winter sites of all these ecosystems was the presence of wetlands, their character varied significantly from the marshes in the mountainous terrain of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Texas and South Carolina. In addition, migrating populations had a fairly large number of diverse routes to their winter stopover sites.
Nutrition
Whooping cranes are omnivores - they feed on both plant and animal foods. During the breeding season, their main diet consists of molluscs, crustaceans, insects, small freshwater fish, frogs and snakes. During winter migration they feed in various conditions: on arable land sown with corn, wheat or sorghum; in the middle of large and small swamps, along the banks of lakes and reservoirs, on river shallows.
Reproduction
Juvenile Whooping Crane
Like other species of cranes, a successful couple celebrates their union with a joint characteristic singing, which is a series of complex drawn-out melodic sounds. When singing, cranes take a vertical position, usually throwing their heads back so that the beak is directed vertically upward. In whooping cranes, the female initiates the song, producing two high-pitched sounds in response to each single lower sound from the male. In this case, the male spreads his wings while the female keeps them folded. During courtship, cranes dance, which can be expressed in jumping, running, tossing tufts of grass or sticks and flapping their wings. The nesting territory can vary quite significantly and ranges from 1.3 to 47.1 km².
The nest is built directly in water with a depth of 14-28 cm in shallow water, in the middle of small lakes or in water meadows and is a well-compacted pile of reeds, sedges or other marsh grass with a small depression at the top. There are always areas with water around the nest that are difficult to reach for land predators. Egg laying occurs in May, the female usually lays 2 eggs (in less than 10% of cases 1 egg) measuring 10.8x6 cm and weighing about 207 g with a break of 2-3 days. The incubation period lasts 29-30 days. Both parents incubate, but the female spends most of her time in the nest. As a rule, only one chick survives before winter migration, as competition for survival begins between the two chicks, ending with the death of one of them. Whooping cranes begin to fly in 80-90 days. Sexual maturity of young birds occurs after 4-5 years.
Threats and security
The main reasons for the sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes are said to be a decrease in the area of land suitable for these birds to live in, as well as environmental pollution. In addition, destructive factors include oil production near the Aransas Reserve, disruption of the natural freshwater circulation system, increased tourism, injuries from collisions with power lines, illegal hunting of these birds, avian tuberculosis and poor genetic biodiversity due to the small number of surviving birds.
Since the early 1970s, with the formation of the International Crane Fund and subsequent restoration programs, the situation has slowly begun to change for the better. Projects have been established at the foundation's nursery in Wisconsin to artificially breed these and other rare species of cranes and then introduce them into the wild. Currently, these programs are bearing fruit - the number of birds has increased to 400 individuals.
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Grus americana |
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Description
A large bird with a height of about 150 cm and a wingspan of 210-240 cm. Males are slightly larger than females, their weight averages 7.3 kg, while females weigh 6.4 kg. The plumage is completely snow-white, with the exception of the black tips of the primary flight feathers on the wings and the black whiskers radiating on either side of the beak. The flight feathers of the third order are noticeably elongated and fall behind in the form of a train. There are no feathers on the top of the head, the skin in this place is dark red. The cornea of the eyes is golden yellow. The beak is yellowish, sometimes at the end it has a dull green tint. Legs are black. Sexual dimorphism (visible differences between males and females) is not pronounced. Young cranes are noticeably different from adult birds - their body is completely covered with feathers, including their head. The plumage, with the exception of the flight wings, is white with numerous rufous spots, which gradually decrease with age and then disappear. The flight feathers of young birds are dark gray. The eye color of the chicks is blue.
Spreading
Whooping cranes are now critically endangered and their population is limited to a very small area of North America. The remaining birds nest in the area of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada's Northwest Territories, where they were accidentally discovered in 1954 by a ranger and a helicopter pilot, and in winter they migrate to the Gulf Coast in the Aransas Reserve in the US state of Texas.
However, numerous fossil finds indicate that whooping cranes were widespread in North America several million years ago during the Pleistocene, with a range extending from central Canada in the north to Mexico in the south and from Utah in the west to the Atlantic Coast in the east . A sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes occurred in the second half of the 19th century, which is associated with human economic activity and uncontrolled hunting. As a result, the number of birds decreased to only 10-12 pairs, which were discovered in 1954 in a remote area.
With the exception of a small group of birds leading a sedentary lifestyle in southwestern Louisiana, the nesting sites of whooping cranes were displaced from the United States at the end of the 19th century. The remaining Louisiana population disappeared completely by the mid-20th century, with the last remaining birds being removed for captivity in 1950.
Lifestyle
Previously, the whooping crane lived in a fairly wide range of different biotopes. Until its population collapse, it nested primarily in the tallgrass prairies of the upper Midwest and aspen thickets in eastern Canada. However, its nests could be found in the completely distinct taiga and subarctic Northwest Territories of Canada, as well as on the marshy Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States. Although a common feature of the winter sites of all these ecosystems was the presence of wetlands, their character varied significantly from the marshes in the mountainous terrain of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Texas and South Carolina. In addition, migrating populations had a fairly large number of diverse routes to their winter stopover sites.
Nutrition
Whooping cranes are omnivores - they feed on both plant and animal foods. During the breeding season, their main diet consists of molluscs, crustaceans, insects, small freshwater fish, frogs and snakes. During winter migration they feed in various conditions: on arable land sown with corn, wheat or sorghum; in the middle of large and small swamps, along the banks of lakes and reservoirs, on river shallows.
Reproduction
Like other species of cranes, a successful couple celebrates their union with a joint characteristic singing, which is a series of complex drawn-out melodic sounds. When singing, cranes take a vertical position, usually throwing their heads back so that the beak is directed vertically upward. In whooping cranes, the female initiates the song, producing two high-pitched sounds in response to each single lower sound from the male. In this case, the male spreads his wings while the female keeps them folded. During courtship, cranes dance, which can be expressed in jumping, running, tossing tufts of grass or sticks and flapping their wings. The nesting territory can vary quite significantly and ranges from 1.3 to 47.1 km².
The nest is built directly in water with a depth of 14-28 cm in shallow water, in the middle of small lakes or in water meadows and is a well-compacted pile of reeds, sedges or other marsh grass with a small depression at the top. There are always areas with water around the nest that are difficult to reach for land predators. Egg laying occurs in May, the female usually lays 2 eggs (in less than 10% of cases 1 egg) measuring 10.8x6 cm and weighing about 207 g with a break of 2-3 days. The incubation period lasts 29-30 days. Both parents incubate, but the female spends most of her time in the nest. As a rule, only one chick survives before winter migration, as competition for survival begins between the two chicks, ending with the death of one of them. Whooping cranes begin to fly in 80-90 days. Sexual maturity of young birds occurs after 4-5 years.
Threats and security
The main reasons for the sharp decline in the number of whooping cranes are said to be a decrease in the area of land suitable for these birds to live in, as well as environmental pollution. In addition, destructive factors include oil production near the Aransas Reserve, disruption of the natural freshwater circulation system, increased tourism, injuries from collisions with power lines, illegal hunting of these birds, avian tuberculosis and poor genetic biodiversity due to the small number of surviving birds.
Since the early 1970s, with the formation of the International Crane Fund and subsequent restoration programs, the situation has slowly begun to change for the better. Projects have been established at the foundation's nursery in Wisconsin to artificially breed these and other rare species of cranes and then introduce them into the wild. Currently, these programs are bearing fruit - the number of birds has increased to 400 individuals.