This lesson shows students how people are helping endangered whooping cranes by teaching cranes raised in captivity how to live in the wild and how to migrate. Students will view videos or photographs of whooping cranes being raised by mechanical crane-like puppets and being led in their first migration journeys by piloted ultralight aircraft disguised as birds. They will conclude by creating timelines showing the process by which whooping cranes are raised in captivity and taught migration routes.

Geography, life science

Standard 9: "The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth's surface"

Two to three hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Wall map of North America
• Blank Xpeditions outline map of North America, one for each student or pair of students
• Large pieces of construction paper
• Writing and drawing materials

Students will

• map the whooping crane's migration route;
• view video clips or photographs of whooping cranes being raised in captivity and taught how to migrate, and list the human-made things they see in these images;
• discuss the ways that people teach whooping cranes how to migrate and the steps involved in this process; and
• create whooping crane timelines showing the steps necessary to train a whooping crane to migrate.

Point to northern Canada on a map or globe, and ask students what they think the weather is like there in the winter and the summer. Then point to southern Texas, and ask them what the weather is like there. They should recognize that Texas is a lot warmer than Canada.

Ask students which place they would prefer to live in—northern Canada or Texas. If they had the option, would they like to migrate between these two places at different times of the year?

Explain to the class that some people migrate between north and south to live in the best weather possible. For example, some people who live in Canada have homes in Texas or Florida where they go during the wintertime.

Explain that some animals migrate between north and south for similar reasons. The whooping crane, for example, spends its winters in the warm weather of southern Texas. It then flies all the way to northern Canada to spend the summer, where it eats, mates, and raises chicks.

Have students look at the first picture on this USGS page listing Frequently Asked Questions about whooping cranes. Ask them to describe what these whooping cranes look like. Have they ever seen birds that look anything like this?

Have students listen to the whooping crane call by clicking on "distinctive call" in the second paragraph. Have they ever heard a bird sound like this? Tell them that the whooping crane gets its name from this special "whooping" call.

Write the word "endangered" on the board, and tell students that the whooping crane is an endangered bird. Explain that endangered means that the birds are very rare and that they could become extinct if people don't take steps to protect them.

Explain that there were between 700 and 1,400 whooping cranes in the mid-1800s, but that people hunted them and destroyed their habitat. The whooping cranes nearly became extinct, but they are making a recovery. Now, there are more than 250 whooping cranes in the wild.

Show students this whooping crane distribution map, or point out the crane's range on a class wall map. Explain again that most whooping cranes spend their summers in the north (Canada) and their winters in the south (Texas). In the summer, they mate, lay eggs, and raise young chicks. When the chicks are old enough and the weather becomes colder, they fly south for the winter. In the winter, they eat and rest until it's warm enough to return north.

Give each student or pair of students a blank outline map of North America. Ask them to draw this migration route on their maps.

Tell the class that some people have been trying to help save whooping cranes. They do not want to let the whooping crane become extinct. They are worried about one bad storm or bird disease hitting the area in Canada where the cranes spend the summer or the area in Texas where they spend the winter. If that happened, all the cranes could die.

For this reason, scientists raise some whooping cranes in captivity. The scientists introduce them into new habitats and even teach them to migrate. They hope that new groups of whooping cranes will settle in North America and migrate every year to their winter and summer grounds.

Have students look at the picture of the aircraft and birds at Operation Migration. Tell them that this person is teaching the cranes how to migrate! The birds are flying along with the aircraft and will land once in a while to let them rest. The pilot will take the cranes all the way from Wisconsin to Florida, which is the migration route that the scientists want these cranes to use.

Have one or two students locate Wisconsin and Florida on a class wall map and run their fingers over the migration route between these two states. Ask students to draw this route on their maps.

Have students look at all or some of these video clips of whooping cranes. If you choose to have them look at only a few, try to include the second through fifth selections. If your computer connections are very slow and it's difficult to view these videos, use the following still images:

• Whooping crane eggs
• Chick learning to eat
• Body language (training the cranes)
• Training the cranes
• Flying with the cranes

Before they view the videos or pictures, provide students with a brief description of what they are about to see. There is a short caption next to each video clip and picture to guide you in how to describe each one.

As students watch the videos or look at the pictures, ask them to pay attention to the things that are not "natural"—in other words, the things that scientists and other people have developed to help the cranes. After they have viewed the videos, ask students to list these things, and discuss their lists. They might mention the aircraft, cages, tricycle/tractor, person's costume, or crane puppet (yes, that's an automated puppet that feeds the chick).

Review the ways that people help the whooping cranes grow up and learn to migrate.

Discuss these questions with the class:

• Why do you think the person in the pictures is wearing a costume? (Answer: Researchers don't want the cranes to become attached to people; this could be dangerous for the cranes, who would not be afraid of people as they should be in the wild.)
• Why do you think the person needs to train the cranes to follow the puppet? (Answer: The cranes are little babies and don't know what they are supposed to do yet; they have to learn everything, sort of like baby people.)

Have students create illustrated timelines of the Operation Migration whooping cranes. Ask them to use large pieces of construction paper and follow these directions:

1. Draw a horizontal line across the middle of the page.
2. Draw four or five boxes along the line. [Note: You can decide how many boxes they should draw.]
3. Draw pictures in the boxes showing different stages of the cranes' lives, as shown in the video clips and photographs (for example, a chick hatching, a chick learning to eat, a flock of birds migrating with an airplane, and a bird taking a bath).
4. Write sentences to describe what they have drawn (optional).

• Have students learn about Lucky, a baby whooping crane who was the first of its species fledged (taught to fly) in the wild. Tell them that, unlike the other birds they have seen pictures of, Lucky will learn how to migrate from his parents rather than from an aircraft. Have students write paragraphs describing the changes Lucky goes through as he grows up, or write a class story about Lucky's development.
  
  
• Share with the class some facts about whooping cranes. Have students draw pictures illustrating these facts.

International Crane Foundation
Journey North
Operation Migration
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: The Whooping Crane