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28 <br />Experimentation with sandhill cranes began in 1961. Immature lesser and greater sandhill <br />cranes were captured on the wintering grounds in 1961 and 1962, respectively, and greater <br />sandhill crane eggs and downy chicks were collected in southeastern Oregon in 1962. <br />These initial studies indicated that egg collecting was the safest and most convenient <br />method of obtaining and transporting wild stock. Only eggs were taken from the wild in <br />subsequent years at Malheur NWR, Oregon and Grays Lake NWR, Idaho, several locations in <br />peninsular Florida, and Jackson County, Mississippi. <br />The experimental flock was initially quartered in temporary facilities at Monte Vista NWR, <br />Colorado. However, in 1966 Senator Karl E. Mundt sponsored a supplemental appropriation <br />to establish the Endangered Wildlife Research Program and to develop permanent facilities at <br />the PWRC in Laurel, Maryland. The Whooping Crane Conservation Association was <br />influential in acquiring the first project funding at PWRC. The advantages of this location, <br />organizational arrangement of this program, and species receiving initial attention were <br />summarized by Erickson (1968). The single whooping crane and sandhill cranes were <br />transferred from Colorado to Maryland in the spring of 1966. This bird, a male eventually <br />named CAN -US, was captured as a chick in WBNP in 1964 after it was observed that his <br />wing was severely injured (Novakowski 1965). <br />Egg- taking experiments with sandhill cranes indicated that nest desertion was negligible and <br />Population productivity was relatively unaffected when single eggs were removed from <br />two -egg clutches. It had previously been noted that cranes normally lay two eggs but rarely <br />fledge two chicks. Observations on the breeding grounds by Novakowski (1966) confirmed <br />that whooping cranes generally follow this pattern. It appeared that a single egg could be <br />sandhill cranes. <br />removed from each two -egg clutch with the same favorable results experienced with <br />CWS and the Service obtained eggs from nests in WBNP in 1,967 to 1971, and 1974 to <br />further augment the PWRC population, and in 1975 through 1988 to provide eggs for the <br />Grays Lake cross - fostering experiment (Table 2). Egg transfers to PWRC were resumed in <br />1982 and initiated at ICF in 1990 to increase the size and genetic diversity of the captive <br />flock. <br />Between 1967 and 1993, 181 eggs were taken from the wild to the captive sites (Table 2). <br />Chicks raised from these eggs currently form the nucleus of the breeding flocks being <br />maintained at PWRC and ICF. Egg collections and subsequent propagation efforts have <br />been described elsewhere (Carpenter et al. 1976, Carpenter and Derrickson 1981, <br />Derrickson and Carpenter 1981, Erickson 1975, 1 976, Erickson and Derrickson 1981, <br />Kepler 1 976, 1978, Kuyt 1976 .l, 19760. <br />Erickson (1976) and Kuyt (19764, 1981 -4, 19810 noted that egg removals have not <br />adversely affected the productivity of the wild population. Between 1967 and 1992, the <br />AWP increased from 48 to 136, and the number of breeding pairs increased from 9 to 40. <br />Although some propagation techniques developed for sandhill cranes can be applied to <br />whooping cranes, the latter have required certain procedural modifications. Whooping <br />cranes have been more difficult to raise than sandhills, and most mortality has occurred <br />within one month of hatching as a result of bacterial infections, coccidiosis, congenital <br />