Look what the stork brought: Cranes!Six baby Sandhill cranes are making South Mississippi their home now, thanks to a breeding and repopulating program at the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge just north of Gautier.
The birds, about 6 months old, were parent-reared at the Audubon Species Survival Center in New Orleans. At least one is male and two female. The records on the other three birds have not yet made it to the refuge.
Lauren Billodeaux, a biologist at the refuge, said at least three of the cranes were originally from the Gautier location. “In one case, there were two eggs, so we removed one to give us a better chance to have one survive. However, both chicks survived in this case.”
The birds were placed in a 2-acre, open-top pen to acclimate them to their new surroundings. They will be free-flying by mid-January.
Billodeaux said the acclimation period allows the birds to get used to the new surroundings and socialize with the resident birds so they are more likely to stay in the area once they are allowed to fly free.
The purpose of the program is two-fold. It helps increase the flock size at the refuge -- which currently is about 110 birds, including 12 new chicks -- and helps diversify the genetics of the flock to curtail inbreeding.
“Recruitment is the hardest -- getting chicks to survive,” Billodeaux said. “We’re getting better, slowly, but we need more birds from the captive flock to supplement what we have here.
“If we can keep the population up and bring in new genetics, we’ll have a stronger flock.”
Cranes mature and begin to pair at 3 to 5 years of age. Billodeaux said it is five to seven years before they lay a successful nest.
According to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR website, the Mississippi sandhill crane was recognized in 1972 as a distinct subspecies of sandhill crane and there are physiological, morphological, behavioral and other differences between them and other sandhill cranes.
They are considered a critically endangered subspecies, found nowhere else in the wild but on and adjacent to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. Only about 110 individuals remain, including about 20-25 breeding pairs.
