U.S. F&W shutting down publicly-funded (non-government) ultralight whooping crane migration

[OnlinePoker]

That’s all she wrote…

There are a number of inhibitors to a successful reintroduction of Whooping cranes. Firstly, you need a method of teaching them migration. Then you must get enough of them onto the landscape so a high percentage will survive to reach breeding age. You must ensure they exhibit wild behavior and mate with their own kind.

Operation Migration team has been very successful in achieving those goals. In fact, the Ultralight led method we pioneered comes closer than any other technique yet developed. It provides the highest survival rate, greater pairing and the only fledged chicks produced in the Eastern Migratory Population...

...On Friday after the WCEP meetings, the Guidance Team gathered in a small boardroom at ICF. Pete Fasbender spoke first and after a long presentation about the future of the EMP and OM’s contribution, he told me that the decision was final. There will be no more aircraft led releases.

http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/?n=field-journal-operationmigration

[postulater]

1. I found this statement interesting. And a bit scary.

"In the human population, modern medicine can cure people with susceptibilities to certain illnesses. Healthy again, they live on to produce children with the same predisposition for that illness. Genetic changes like these have been documented in many captive animals and it is surprising how quickly it can occur."