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<br />'.(;-'., <br /> <br />21 <br /> <br />In 1985, a plan for Federal-State Cooperative Protection of Whooping Cranes was approved <br />by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 13 States where whooping cranes occurred (Lewis <br />1992). The cooperative plan describes proposed response options when whooping cranes <br />are observed in hazardous situations due to avian disease outbreaks, environmental <br />contaminants, or hunting activities, or when these cranes are found injured, sick, or dead, <br />Plan objectives are to provide added protection to whooping cranes, especially during <br />migration, and to increase the opportunities to recover and rehabilitate birds found injured or <br />sick. A similar plan was implemented in Canada in 1987. <br /> <br />A whooping crane health management workshop was organized in 1992 by the National <br />Wildlife Health Research Center and ICF. Participants included the veterinary and wildlife <br />disease specialists working with whooping cranes. Uniform health management protocols <br />were established for disease monitoring and captive and wild flocks and for pre-release and <br />pre-transfer disease screening. Unpublished information was collated on disease research. <br />Research needs were identified and prioritized including avian tuberculosis, Eastern Equine <br />Encephalitis (EEE), and crane herpes. Development of a centralized, computerized database <br />on whooping crane mortality was initiated. A Health Advisory Team was established with a <br />clinical and research veterinarian identified to coordinate input and serve as official advisors <br />to the recovery team. The group should continue to meet periodically to evaluate progress <br />and address future needs. <br /> <br />H. AWP Management And Research <br /> <br />Mioration Monitorino: Although a number of migration sightings have been reported and <br />compiled over the years (Allen 1952, Sutton 1967, Walkinshaw 1973, Archibald et al. <br />1976, Asherin and Drewien 1987), few were confirmed. In order to protect migrating <br />whooping cranes from disease outbreaks and other potential hazards, and to compile <br />information on the characteristics and locations of stopover sites, Service initiated a <br />migration-monitoring program in 1975. This program alerts key personnel about sightings <br />so that reports can be verified, stopover sites described, and the birds kept under protective <br />surveillance by State and Federal personnel. This monitoring program is now coordinated <br />with reporting networks of the CWS, States, and provinces along the migration corridor, <br /> <br />Flightless young whooping cranes were captured and marked with colored plastic leg bands <br />in WBNP from 1977 through 1988 (Kuyt 1978l!, 1979l!, Drewien and Kuyt 1979). <br />Forty-eight percent of the 133 birds in the AWP were still individually identifiable in the <br />summer of 1991. This marking program provided a wealth of information on whooping <br />crane biology, including the summering locations of subadults, the dynamics and habitat-use <br />of wintering subadult flocks, age specific survivorship, the age of initial pairing and <br />breeding, reproductive histories, and the identification of stopover sites, and wintering and <br />breeding territories used by specific pairs (Kuyt 1979~, 1981l!, 1981.l1, Bishop and <br />Blankinship 1982, Bishop 1984). The presence of marked birds provided more precise <br />information on migration chronology, and yielded information on several events which would <br />have otherwise gone undetected (Stehn 1992). Other information gained from the banding <br />studies included the ability to develop a studbook on a fairly large segment of the wild <br />population, tracing the reproductive histories of many of the birds includin9 mate switches <br />and probable deaths. This data provides valuable insight into the relatedness and genetic <br />