[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.
Women: 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.
For information regarding
purchase of a videocassette
of this program,
write to: Ootek Productions
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Spring Green, WI
53588.