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<br />Jii.... <br /> <br />58 <br /> <br />23. Maintain caotive facilities. <br /> <br />All aspects of Task 2 require adequate facilities for the captive whooping crane <br />populations and surrogate species. Adequate pens are available for maintaining 27 to <br />30 breeding pairs in the United States. When captive whooping crane populations <br />reach their full production potential, additional. pre-release pens may be required. All <br />facilities should be maintained so birds are kept in conditions suitable for their health, <br />safety, and productivity so that recovery and research objectives can be achieved. <br /> <br />3. Establish two additional wild DODuletions. <br /> <br />The Service and CWS should coordinate their research and management efforts to establish <br />at least two discrete, self-sustaining populations, each consisting of a minimum of 25 <br />nesting pairs by year 2020. These populations may consist of one migratory and one <br />nonmigratory population. ' <br /> <br />31. DeveloD release techniaues. <br /> <br />Test techniques for establishing migratory and ;lion-migratory populations. Factors <br />which need to be examined include age of birds, rearing methods, time of year, and <br />pre-release conditioning procedures, methods for teaching suitable migration behavior, <br />and predator avoidance training. The number of released birds and post-release <br />monitoring should be adequate to insure proper evaluation. <br /> <br />32. Select release sites. <br /> <br />The Service, CWS, and Provincial and State wildlife agencies, in consultation with <br />others as appropriate, should evaluate proposed potential release sites based on the <br />biological needs of the whooping crane, the likelihood of establishing discrete, <br />self-sustaining populations, and the impact of such an introduction on other resources <br />and programs. The Service and CWS will be responsible for selecting proposed sites <br />and ranking them according to their biological suitability. Service and CWS will <br />thoroughly examine proposed release sites and other habitats to be used 'by released <br />cranes to determine potential conflicting management problems. Examples of problems <br />to be examined are land and water resource d~velopment, habitat degradation, impacts <br />on other wildlife species, powerline distributiol1, disease, predators, and hunting. In <br />particular, the United States role in this project will be to identify a suitable migration <br />route and wintering area for a second migratory population to be reintroduced in <br />Canada late this decade. This introduced population should use wintering habitat <br />discrete from that used by the AWP. <br /> <br />33. Establish nonmiaratorv DODulation. <br /> <br />Continue to test the soft release of whooping crenes, isolation-reared or parent-reared <br />in captivity, as a means of establishing a non-migratory population in Florida. Monitor <br />the released birds to gather data on habitat use, movements, mortality factors, nesting <br />success, and other data crucial to release success. Periodically evaluate release <br />