A flock of endangered whooping cranes will soon move into their winter home at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. 20 of the endangered birds are following an ultralight airplane on their way to Florida. Currently, the cranes are in Franklin County, Alabama.
Half of the birds will end their flight at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Wakulla County. The rest will continue on to central Florida. The birds are flying from Wisconsin as part of a federal program called Operation Migration to rebuild the bird’s population.
Once they arrive in St. Marks the birds have a special three-acre pen with two ponds to provide protective habitat. There are sandbag and oyster shell reefs within the ponds to teach the cranes to sleep in the water to avoid predators.
The birds are some of the most endangered in the world. In 1950 there were estimated to be only 16 whooping cranes remaining in the wild. Presently there are approximately 525 birds in existence, 375 in the wild.
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