There was also great publicity given along their migratory route. The nesting grounds of this last flock had never been found. Finally, after ten years of intensive aerial search, it was discovered in 1954 in the northern part of the 17,300 square mile Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada, near the Arctic Circle. The very restricted wintering and nesting habitat of the small wild population leaves them subject to rapid extermination due to a natural disaster, water pollution, or an outbreak of disease. Therefore an effort was begun to establish a captive population.
Incubation begins soon after the first egg is laid.
This second chick does not usually survive. In 1967 Canadian and American biologists began removing one egg form each 2-egg clutch and hatching that egg at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. Disturbed wild pairs did not desert the remaining egg and a captive population was established. The whooping crane with a 49-56 inch height is the tallest North American bird. Pairs of whooping cranes mate for life.