Last news from Dr. Bernhard Weßling
(E-mail message to the Common Crane forum - October 24, 2001)

Dear crane friends,

as you might know, the Whooping Crane is the most endangered crane species with only 177 wild individuals remaining as of last count. The Whooping Crane Recovery Team (US / Canada) has decided to establish a new population in Wisconsin by release of captive reared chicks, and to teach them to migrate to Florida by following an ultraleight airplane.

I have the chance to contribute to the success of this unique experiment by supplying artificial vocal communication: we are communicating with the birds by megaphone and 6 different crane calls, which I had recorded in the wild and are available on electronic chips in a new "soundbox".

The birds have been trained the last months, and migration has begun on October 17. Right now, they have reached the fourth stopover location.

You can follow the migration by looking at

"www.bringbackthecranes.org"

and also learn about the use of my vocalisation technique there. You can find more about use of vocalisation studies in my website "www.craneworld.de".

With best regards,

            Bernhard Wessling