Raising Crane Transcript

[ethereal music, cranes calling]

[sandhill cranes honk rattling bugle calls]

Narrator: They were once called Spirit Gods rising from the marshes.

Since ancient times, human beings have gazed into the wetlands of the world hoping for a glimpse of a bird which has always occupied a special place in their hearts.

In many cultures, cranes are sacred a link not only to the wild but to the spiritual forces which created and sustain the natural world.

But not all humans share this profound respect. Today, cranes are one of the most endangered families of birds on earth. Seven of the 15 species are endangered. Marshes once enlivened by the sounds of cranes have fallen silent.
[crickets chirp, frog croaks]
But new methods are being developed to return these birds to their former homes. These Sandhill Cranes were once also threatened but conservation efforts have restored their numbers a ray of hope for other species.

Fewer than 1,500 Red-crowned Cranes survive in the wild and less than 150 Whooping Cranes. The combined total populations of these species add up to less than the number of Sandhill Cranes you see here. These more abundant cranes are part of an unusual experiment in interspecies contact one which holds promise for replenishment of endangered crane flocks.

This is Gee Whiz the whooping crane. He is four years old, and he is the son of Tex the Whooping Crane that I had to dance with in order to induce her to lay eggs. Whoop, whoop!
[crane squawking]

Narrator: Eggs, of course, are the key to raising cranes.

If an egg is stolen from a breeding pair they will usually lay another. Some captive crane pairs have produced as many as 16 eggs during the breeding season. They couldn't take care of all these chicks themselves.

Human foster parents can.
[vocalizing crane sounds]
But there are drawbacks to this method.

Archibald: Gee Whiz is defending his territory. He's trying to drive me out.

Narrator: It is Archibald's hope that Gee Whiz will soon breed in this territory he's established, as many other cranes have done here at the Crane Foundation. But these captive-reared birds soon become accustomed to humans.

Archibald: Our challenge now is to raise cranes in captivity that are afraid of people birds that, when we put them into the wild will be wild and not approach man. During the past couple of years Dr. Rob Horwich has been working at the Crane Foundation to develop such techniques. They have proved successful and in the near future they may be applied to the whooping crane or other endangered species of cranes. 

Narrator: Although the Crane Foundation is able to raise a large number of chicks each year these human-reared birds probably wouldn't survive in the wild. Why do Horwich's cranes survive? Perhaps it's because he's "dressed up" the normal procedures for raising cranes.

Horwich: When I first used the costume I began to think of it as a joke. And then as I thought more and more about it I thought it might have some real use. The crane chick treats you as though you're it's mother. And you begin to feel like it. It responds to you as though it would an adult crane.

It's always good to get out of this costume. We use the costume like this because we're interested in hand-rearing crane chicks so they won't imprint on humans.

Narrator: The key question is, how do cranes know they are cranes? The learning starts when they are still in the egg and is reinforced during specific stages as they grow.
[tape recorder playing crane sounds]

[chick chirping]

[tape recorder playing crane sounds]
Horwich: A newborn chick will develop an attachment to almost anything that provides a stimulus so we isolated our chicks from humans and tried to emulate the sights and sounds that an adult crane would provide for it.
[chirping]

Narrator: Having nothing to judge it by the chick accepts its inanimate parent but as a teacher, the model has obvious limitations.

Horwich: Well, I knew we needed something more, something mobile so we could take the chicks out into the marsh and teach them what they need to know. I remembered a film I saw years ago an absurd image of a Czechoslovakian scientist dressed like a two-legged stag with a deer head mounted on his shoulders. He'd approach a group of deer. And when he tossed his antlers like a stag in rut they would respond and attempt to lock horns with him in battle. The aggressive stimuli were so strong that the deer overcame its own deer rationality. And I thought maybe a crane suit could do the same and rise above the crane rationality. I used to think that maybe the chick had a dream like a reverse Pinocchio dream where Geppetto thinks about wishing for a real son. I thought maybe this chick sitting around with its modeled mother wishing for it to come alive. When we finally introduce the costume, it did come alive. When I first went in at first, it was afraid. And I turned on the sound and he was attracted to me. Then eventually, very quickly, I could lead him around and he would climb on me and peck me and try and brood between my legs. And at that point, I felt that he was really accepting me as much as he would a real mother.

Narrator: This acceptance brought with it some of the universal headaches of parenthood.
§ §

But there are quiet times, too.

Although sometimes these must be interrupted for other important lessons.

The chick's first exposure to human beings is purposely a negative one. Fear of people is essential considering that endangered cranes are hunted in many parts of the world.

At nine weeks, the chicks are moved from the Crane Foundation to an isolated area of the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin. Horwich and his student research assistants will spend the next six weeks here as counselors at a very special type of survival camp.

Horwich: To equip the birds for survival, we had to give careful thought to the two types of learning and how they interact. Some things we could teach them by example where they learn by observing us. Other times, we had to expose them to potential wild scenarios where things they knew by instinct were brought out. They probably wouldn't recognize corn on their own. In the wild, it would be the parent bird that would show it to them so we showed it to them. And we fed it to them, and then they'd try to eat it. And here's where the innate knowledge, the things they knew by instinct, would kick in. As they practice, it becomes clear that they're equipped for certain things. Their beak can manipulate corn in only certain ways.

Narrator: Some of the chicks' training anticipates the critical four to five week period they'll be on their own between release and link up with a wild flock.

Horwich: We worry that insects might not be enough to ensure their survival so we introduce them to some wild plant foods such as the root of arrowhead plant. It's a bulky food, and it has a high carbohydrate content which we thought would give them what they needed for survival.

Narrator: In many ways, inter-species foster parents are no different from other parents.

Horwich: I slowly realized that the experiment wasn't just affecting the birds because I was starting to feel a maternal bond much as any mother would feel towards the young that she reared and protected.

Truman's the only one we haven't had any trouble with. Like you said, they're all in good shape now. Truman is the one I didn't like in the beginning because he was so ugly.

Woman: A scrawny little thing.

Horwich: Yeah, scrawny and had an egg.

Woman: Eggshell on the back.

Horwich: He had a eggshell attached to him for about two weeks. At least two weeks! I thought that he was going to not make it. But he was always a good bird. Yeah, he was. He always kind of escaped your attention because he was so good. It was like in school, when all the bad kids get all of the attention. Did you see her fly this morning? Yeah, I'll say kind of. I don't think she ever left the ground but she went about 30 or 40 feet flapping the whole time. Flapping. I was talking about that moment of truth last year when we finally decided it was time to release them and time to take away everything, the food and the parent. That was real hard. And I think it will be just as hard this year. There is a lot at stake there. And you don't know if they're really eating it. I mean, you're giving them corn and they're eating corn, you're giving them arrowhead and they're eating it but you don't really know if they're getting enough.
[crane squawking]

Narrator: As the time they'll be released into the wild draws near the chicks are fitted with radio-transmitters and identification bands. This may cramp their style at first but they're already starting to learn a new mode of transportation.
§ §

Horwich: One of the really neat things is when you finally see them fly and that's what we're starting to see.

[whispering] This tent is what we use to keep separate from the chicks. In a sense, because we're releasing them we become captive. And it's not a very pleasant place. It's hot, and sometimes it's got insects. But I feel it's necessary because we want to keep them from seeing humans as much as possible, seeing and hearing humans.

Narrator: The long hot days in the blind leave plenty of time for reflection.

Horwich: The view that human beings have dominion over all living things that we're in essence the parents of all creatures has led, I think, to many bad decisions on our part as human beings. Because of this, many species, including the cranes are in bad trouble. It's kind of ironic that the solution may be to literally become the parent to another species. And in a way, I'm opposed to interfering with the natural parenting process. But I feel we're sort of obligated to use whatever tools we have to try and correct this imbalance that we've created.

Narrator: For 25 years, Horwich has studied infant development in humans, monkeys, apes, squirrels, mockingbirds, and other animals and has recognized recurrent patterns in these diverse species.

Horwich: It's amazing how similar the cycles of behavior in the mother-infant relationships are even between very, very different types of animals. It suggests the common source of all life, the link that all species share. When they're first born they're very close to the parent.

Then as they learn new skills, they become more independent and move away from the parent. And then once again they regress and become close to the parent. It's almost as though they're scared by their new abilities And they'll pull back several times. And the last and most regressive time was right after they learned to fly. At that time, they got real bad. They'd just hang around the tent all day. They'd stay with the foster parent all the time and they'd peck the feathers like they did when they were younger.

Narrator: With the chicks' flying and foraging skills perfected Horwich's parenting job should be done. But the question lingers. Are they equipped to survive in the wild?

Horwich: I hope that releasing them when they were most dependent would force the chicks to seek out substitute parents, hopefully their own species. But it was a very difficult decision to make. We cut them off cold turkey. We removed everything. That included the tent, the corral, and most crucial, we took away their parents. We took away the costume.

[radio signal beeping]

Are you still getting them now? Yeah. It sounds like they're back down on that southwest roost.

Narrator: To find out what happens to the chicks after they're released, John Wood, a graduate student from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has turned his van into a mobile tracking station. The transmitter on each chick has its own unique frequency. If the birds begin migrating, as is hoped Wood will follow, keeping track of as many of Horwich's cranes as possible. There they are. Hold it. Stop, stop, stop. There they are, a batch of them. There they go.

In one sense, it's a success that we're never able to get that close to Cyclops. And it's pretty amazing, really. Yeah, it is. Is Cyclops in with them? Can you get a signal? He's up in that area. But I can't really tell if he's one of those birds. We're going to have to get closer. You want to go and flush them? Sure.

Narrator: Wood and Horwich spend the next few weeks spying on their brood hoping for signs of acceptance from the wild flock. They also compare their chicks' behavior to that of the wild birds.

Horwich: I think what you just told me about the two and Cyclops were acting like siblings. The only pair that we had that were acting like siblings. I think that's really gold because that's just another example that proves that the chicks that we reared with the artificial mothers and the costume are acting normal. I don't know... What are some of the other signs?

Wood: At points, or at times seemed more vigilant than the wild young with parents.

Horwich: That must have been something that they just had to pick up with not having parents. But I think those points just totaled and added up to that we raised fairly normal chicks.

Narrator: The fact that the chicks seem to have linked up with a wild flock is good news.
[cranes rattle kar-r-r-o-o-o]

[cranes squawk loud flight calls]

Three weeks later, there is even better news. The chicks have shown up at the annual gathering of thousands of cranes at the Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Indiana. Horwich is a success as a foster parent.
[honk cacophony of rattling bugle calls]

Horwich: It's a real thrill to know that some of our chicks are out in amongst those thousands here at Jasper-Pulaski. And to know that they're kind of on their way down to Florida presumably Florida, on the migratory route. It makes me feel good to know that we did the right thing. We were able to release them and have them join with their own kind.

[cranes emit unity calls]

When you first see Jasper-Pulaski, it's amazing. There is just huge numbers of cranes; more cranes than you've ever seen. And then, if you start to focus, you see that each crane is working through its individual life. Some are dancing in synchrony with others. Others are showing temporary aggression towards their neighbors.
[cranes growl-purr guard calls]

All of them seem to be poised and ready.

They're waiting for some signal that's obscure to us; something that will tell them that it's time for them to move on. It's time for them to migrate.

Narrator: For Horwich, the Indiana gathering symbolizes not only the success of his project but hope for all endangered species.

[cranes giving flight calls]

Horwich: It's an incredible sight to see these thousands of cranes all around in this area in Jasper-Pulaski. And it reminds me of a story. A neighbor of mine, who was brought up in Wisconsin told me about being in the field with Aldo Leopold and seeing a few pairs fly over. And Leopold lamented, saying to look well because he may never see these again. He fully expected that they may be gone from the wild. All the conservation efforts have really produced a bolster in the population. And hopefully, perhaps our technique could play a similar part or begin a similar part with some other endangered species.

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