Main captive whooping crane breeding program shut down

[DavidBrown]

The 50 year old captive breeding program for whooping cranes at the Patuxent, Maryland wildlife research complex is ending due to budget cuts. The animals are being moved to the Calgary Zoo and the International Crane Foundation. The end of the project is sudden.

A 50-year effort to raise endangered whooping cranes comes to an end

 

[Carl Jones]

This is terrible news. I visited Patuxent in 1976 and had a private tour of the facility. I was only an undergraduate at the time and wrote to the centre saying that I wanted to see their captive animals. They kindly showed me around since they thought I was a visiting endangered species biologist rather than, at the time, a student. I saw the cranes, Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Black Footed Ferrets and if I recall correctly Puerto Rican Parrots.

The article is an excellent one and illustrates he valuable work conducted at this centre.