Birds on their way to extinction by Claudia Sonea

Earth is a beautiful planet whose secrets have yet to be discovered. Who knows for sure what was before the Ice Age and how things really evolved during that period and after it? Look at the Whooping Crane, one of the endangered species that is heading with rapid steps towards extinction. Probably in 2100, people might get to see a Whooping Crane only at the Natural History Museum, like we admire today a copy of a Dodo. The Whooping Crane is the tallest North American bird (around 5.5 feet tall) that was named after its whooping sound and call. It is the only crane specie to migrate without human help. Their migration route is from the Canadian Nort! h to the Texas Gulf. In 1995 U.S. Wildlife officials counted 149 whooping cranes, but through sustained efforts of both American and Canadian conservationists there are nowadays 539 birds. The number is encouraging, why then the worries about extinction? The latest report of US Fish and Wildlife Service showed that the Whooping Crane dropped 21 percent last year and that the rate of death is twice the normal one. Moreover, this year the expectations are for another drop of 20 percent. Conservationists assure that there is still hope to save the birds from extinction, but they have to protect their natural habitat and watch carefully for the hatchlings. Among the efforts to protect the unique specie there is the Nature Conservancy's Upper Gulf Coast program in Texas, the Operation Migration, and the larger group, WCEP (the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership), Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, International Crane Foundation.

related sto! ry (sgx15229): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090825/ap_on_re_us/us_whooping_...

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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