Whooping cranes future uncertain again

Tanner Bernard distinctly remembers the crystal clear porcelain white bird standing out amongst all the grey Sandhill cranes. From that moment on, he would be able to tell his story of spotting one of the rarest and most endangered birds: the whooping crane.

“Being a kid, I didn’t understand the impact,” said Tanner Bernard, a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and aspiring ornithologist. “But now being in the major I’m in, I know what I saw was once in a lifetime.”

Now, a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Bernard is worried about the bird’s future.

A month after an alarming study on the state’s whooping crane population was released, researchers and Nebraskans are waiting in limbo to see what will happen to the endangered bird. Despite almost 80 years of fighting for this species, birders are concerned once again.

This fall, Nebraska game and parks officials put out a call to Nebraskans to report whooping crane sightings. Since the beginning of November, they’ve received six sightings.

Mary Bomberger Brown, a research assistant professor of Natural Resources at UNL, will be keeping a closer eye on the numbers.

Brown co-authored a study released last month that showed that whooping cranes are changing their migration patterns because of climate change. This could spell trouble for the cranes, or it could be a blessing.

The truth is that Nebraska needs more sightings and data on the whooping cranes to determine how they are surviving through this change, Nebraska scientists said.

The whooping crane is an iconic species standing five feet tall with bright, white feathers. It has been endangered for so long that the sight of the bird is once in a lifetime to some birders. It is the most critically endangered of the 15 different crane species with almost 500 left.

Although it’s unclear how climate change will ultimately affect whooping cranes in Nebraska, conservation efforts are ongoing across its migration path.

Local Nebraskans are also working to protect the species from hunting and habitat destruction. Though there have always been efforts to restore the wetlands whooping cranes need to survive, this is more important now with the future uncertain.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission encourages people to leave the birds alone and continue to advocate to keep their natural habitat rather than turning it into farmland. Birders can also volunteer to be a babysitter for the birds as they pass through. The volunteers sit in the marshes near them and make sure no hunters or harm come their way.

For its migration, the whooping crane travels from Canada, all the way down to the wetlands of Texas. Conservationists along the way protect its every move.

“Now is not the time to relax,” said Tim Grunewald, a director at the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin which works to conserve all 15 crane species. “There’s still a lot of work to go.”

Grunewald follows all the research and protections that go on for the North American cranes.

Currently, Canadian Wildlife Service is doing research on environmental contaminants on breeding grounds as well as banding studies on whooping cranes, he said. In the 2,500 mile migration corridor, many researchers study powerlines and work on land protection for the birds. In coastal Texas, high priority locations like wildlife refuges are secured, preparing for the birds arrival.

Grunewald said that climate change has been progressing quicker than researchers anticipated.

Mary Bomberger Brown said that the she can imagine a positive and negative result to the findings.

The research released in September shows that because of climate change, whooping cranes are migrating three weeks earlier in the spring around April and three weeks later in the fall around November. The study analyzed 74 years’ worth of data and used correlation studies to show that the birds are moving with the changing temperatures

“Lots of climate change research is going to be negative,” said Bomberger Brown.

This research is unusual in that the whooping cranes could potentially have a happy ending. With a longer breeding season, the birds could have more time to raise their chicks. Whooping cranes need 90 to 100 days to raise their young to be independent. This migration change could give them three more weeks of wiggle room to get it done.

However, like most climate change stories, this research could also spell trouble for the already endangered birds. The babies only fly for four weeks before heading on the long journey south.

“When the chicks have been flying for four weeks, there’s no need for them to be flying into a snowstorm,” Bomberger Brown said.

With a later start to the migration and an early leave in the spring, the whooping cranes are likely to hit rough winters that are also predicted to get more severe and erratic with climate change, Bomberger Brown said.

Whooping cranes are also particular about their diet. They need more protein and eat things like lizards, frogs and worms to satisfy it. If the ground and water is still frozen when they’re moving north in the spring, they will not be able to get their food to survive, she said.

When people think of cranes in Nebraska, they usually think of the Sandhill Cranes. About 700,000 birds migrate through Nebraska every spring. Bomberger Brown does not think climate change will affect these birds as much because they mainly eat grains and live in different types of areas.

However, many birders come to Nebraska to catch a glimpse of the elusive whooping crane.

Bernard, the student who saw the bird as a child, grew up watching the Sandhill crane migration in his home town of Kearney. He is working in the bird exhibit at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo, and has plans to work under a biologist maintaining waterfowl. He said he is worried about the future of the cranes after reading the research.

“You’re putting those migratory birds in climates they’re not used to being in and potentially pushing them into further extinction,” Bernard said.

Joel Jorgenson, the non-game bird program manager at Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and co-author of the study, said there have only been six reports of the species.

“(The study) is an additional confirmation that things are changing,” Jorgenson said. “Whooping cranes don’t have an argument about things; they’re just responding to changes in the world.”

The whooping crane already has gone through a lot to survive. In 1938, there were only 15 adults left. Conservationists worked hard to bring that number up to almost 500 today, said Grunewald, the director at the Crane Foundation, and the whooping cranes are deemed a success story. However, they are still classified as endangered and because they only have small spots where they migrate, they are susceptible to the smallest changes.

“It’s such an iconic species, losing it would be a great shame,” Jorgenson said. “The world is a better place with them in it.”

Now with decreased budgets for whooping crane recovery and climate change, whooping cranes will face a battle again.

Senators in Nebraska have proposed coming up with a climate action plan before to prepare for the change to the environment and economy. The latest effort was LB 646 proposed by Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks in January to start a climate action plan in accordance with the UNL Climate Change Study in 2014.

Nothing happened with the bill and Nebraska has not addressed any plans for the changing climate, according to the Nebraska Legislature website.

Researchers can only guess the future of the whooping cranes. For now, they will continue to analyze data and work for solutions.

Whooping cranes and their conservationists will need to continue to fight for their survival if future generation want to see the towering, unique birds.

“They’re big creatures, really elegant things,” Bomberger Brown said. “There’s a lot of people who have worked really hard to protect them.”