Endangered whooping cranes are beginning to join the annual migration of some 450,000 sandhill cranes that are stopping in central Nebraska in route to breeding grounds in Canada.
Crane Trust president Brice Krohn says the arrival of the whooping cranes is a big moment for researchers and fans from around the world who come to Nebraska for the annual migration of the sandhill cranes.
.At one time, there were only 21 whooping cranes left in the wild with 2 in captivity, but there are now 543 in the wild migratory flock.
Krohn says the whoopers are just now entering the southern plains and Platte River area with fewer than 10 spotted so far in Nebraska. When they do arrive, they stay only 2 days to a week before heading to their primary breeding grounds at Wood Buffalo National Park of Canada.
      The sandhill cranes, which are roosting in an 80-mile stretch along the Platte River from Chapman to Overton, stay about 3 weeks to feed in wet meadows and crop fields as the juveniles find a mate before heading as far north as eastern Siberia.
New arrivals will replace the cranes as they leave Nebraska, with their numbers diminishing before the last ones leave in mid-to-late April.
Sandhill cranes do not nest “in an 80-mile stretch along or on islands in the Platte River from Chapman to Overton.” They roost at night in the river channel and feed during the day in meadows and fields along the river.