Grounded whooping cranes resume migration
WASHINGTON: After an unprecedented grounding, the US government will now permit a flock of rare whooping cranes on its inaugural winter migration to Florida to conclude a 2 068 km flight.
The whooping cranes left Wisconsin in autumn and had been stuck in pens in Alabama since December 21 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted their flight, just 800 km from their Florida refuge, to looked into whether the ultralight aircraft leading them had violated regulations.
“The FAA is granting a one- time exemption so the migration can be completed,” the agency said in a statement.
The birds are part of Operation Migration (OM), a publicprivate Us-canadian partnership aimed at re-establishing migrating flocks of whooping cranes, a species nearly wiped out in the 1940s when their numbers fell to just 15 birds.
The issue arose because the pilots are being paid by the conservation group Operation Migration, violating FAA regulations that a pilot must hold a commercial rating to fly for compensation. The Operation Migration pilots are licensed to fly lightweight sport aircraft.
The FAA, in granting its exemption, said it would work with Operation Migration to develop a long-term solution.
“We appreciate the agency’s efforts, and we thank everyone; supporters and the public for the overwhelming outpouring on behalf of whooping cranes and Operation Migration,” OM said on its website, operationmigration.org.
The cranes, members of North America’s tallest flying bird species, are bred and hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre in Maryland, then transferred to a refuge in Wisconsin.
They are reared by conservationists in bird suits that conceal their human features. They become conditioned to follow the suited handlers and an ultralight plane.
On the migratory route, the cranes follow the small plane flown by a pilot in a bird costume, thinking the glider-like ultralight plane is another bird. The flock flies from 40 to 80 km a day. Once the route is flown the birds can make the return flight on their own. – Reuters