In mid-September, the whooping cranes at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada begin thir migration south for the winter. Birds with new chicks are usually last to leave because it takes most of the short summer for the chicks to fledge. The 2,500-mile migration route goes through Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and ends in the Gulf coast of Texas. It takes the cranes around 4 to 6 weeks to travel from Canada to Texas.
Migration can be hazardous for the whooping cranes.
Each year, migration rest stops in wetlands along the way are changed as people build power lines, erect new cellular, radio and TV towers, and expand cities where cranes need to stop and eat or rest. Unfortunately, the crane's wintering grounds on the gulf coast of Texas have also become one of the world's busiest marine-shipping lanes. Because of the danger that a hurricane, oil spill, or some other catastrophe could bring to the one remaining migratory flock, scientists are trying to establish another migrating flock.