Almost 200 whooping cranes will trek across the Great Plains in October, migrating from Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada's Northwest Territories to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast. The story of the whooper's recovery from a nadir of 15 birds in the winter of 1941-42 has been celebrated across the world. Progress continues this year with near record numbers of cranes reported in the wild and in captivity.
Migration begins with northerly winds, good visibility, and increasing barometric pressure.
The average date when the first whooping cranes pass through the Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska, and Kansas is October 10 to 15. Migration through Oklahoma and Texas is about October 15 to 20. The first whooping crane arrival at Aransas NWR occurs on average about October 16. In the Rocky Mountains, three of four whoopers began their migration south from Yellowstone National Park this week to the Rio Grande Valley of central New Mexico, and are currently in southeastern Idaho. Two of the cranes are the only remaining survivors of a foster parent experiment where whooping crane eggs were placed in sandhill nests, with the adult sandhill cranes teaching the whoopers to migrate.