Feds to end ultralight-led whooping crane migration

Feds to end ultralight-led whooping crane migration

Updated 1:08 pm, Sunday, January 24, 2016

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will stop supporting the use of ultralight aircraft to help young whooping cranes migrate from Wisconsin to Florida each fall.

Officials announced Friday that this season's ultralight-guided flights to the birds' winter home will be the last, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported (http://bit.ly/1PsNoOg ).

Operation Migration, the Canadian-based nonprofit group that has led the migrations for 15 years, has opposed the end of ultralights, saying the program has helped cranes survive. But Fish and Wildlife officials the birds haven't been successful in producing chicks and raising them in the wild.

The effort has spent more than $20 million to establish the flock that's distinct from a larger flock of whooping cranes migrating between the Texas Gulf Coast and northern Canada.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Feds-to-end-ultralight-led-whooping-crane-6780788.php

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