The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is celebrating a successful breeding season for the endangered whooping crane. LDWF biologist Sara Zimorski says eight more chicks have reached the fledgling stage in south Louisiana that’s out of the fifteen that hatched.
“Eight may sound like a small number but in the world of whooping cranes it’s a really great number and it’s actually a record,” Zimorski said.
Louisiana began its reintroduction project in 2011 when ten juvenile whooping cranes were released at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in Vermilion Parish. The population is now up to 76. Zimorski says whooping cranes are slow to mature and only lay one or two eggs a year, but she hopes this year’s record is the beginning of a trend.
“I think probably ultimately it was the combination of a couple of things. Probably a little bit of luck. We’ve also got older more experienced birds and maybe the weather conditions helped as well,” she said.
Fledglings are defined as a bird that has feathers and wing muscles good enough to fly, but that is still dependent on their mother for food.
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