Ceropegia's photos with the keyword: endangered

These seven whooping cranes are in a field beside Priceville High School in Decatur, Alabama, a couple of miles from Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge where they are wintering. The brown-headed young bird, #69-16, called Zion, named after the National Park in celebration of the National Park Service’s centennial, was hatched and raised by foster parent whooping cranes at the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin in 2016. In the fall, she was released into the wild in Wisconsin near an adult pair, the goal being that she would associate with them and follow them when they migrated. She never really bonded with them, instead migrating to Wheeler for the winter with a group of sandhill cranes. At Wheeler, she has begun associating with other whooping cranes. (IMG_4734)

This crane, #59-13, named Latka, was the first whopping crane to arrive at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge wintering ground in Alabama in November 2015. She is part of an effort to establish an Easterm Migratory Flock (EMF) of cranes that was begun in 2000. She is one about 600 wild cranes in existence. The EMF she is in numbers about 100. She was hatched in 2013 from an egg from the Calgary Zoo, costume raised to prevent human imprinting, transferred to the Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin in September, allowed to spend more and more time out of her pen, and was was officially released into the wild adult population in late October to allow her to follow them back to wintering grounds in the south, a program known as Direct Autumn Release (DAR). Eventurally, but quite late in the year, the 2013 DAR birds started their migration but for some reason Latka returned north. Because of severe cold weather a decision was made to capture Latka. She was flown south and released at Wheeler. She learned the migration route when she returned north with a few other cranes the next spring. This is her second year to return to Wheeler unaided. She is quite small for a whooping crane. You can read about her history at www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/crane/13/BandingCodes_latka.html

These cranes are endangered. Only about 600 exist - 400 of them are in the wild. Of those, 300 are in the only naturally migrating flock which is west of the Mississippi and 100 are captive born that are being released into the wild in hopes of establishing another migrating flock east of the Mississippi River. Thirty four of the released birds have been wintering in Alabama, 12 to 14 of them at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Decatur, Alabama where this photo was taken. The birds were quite far away not much more than a white speck to the native eye. However, if I really blow the image up, though blurred, I can see some of the leg bands. Each crane has a distinctively colored band. All the eastern cranes have life histories on the internet. When I have time I will try to find the ones I photo'd. (IMG_7691)

Mexican Wolves nearly became extinct and are extremely endangered. A subspecies of the gray wolf, they are the smallest North American wolf. They were exterpated in the wild when the last 5 were captured in the late 70's. After their numbers increased significantly in captive breeding programs, rereintroduction to the wild began in 1998. These two, at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, are part of the captive breeding program (DSC03581)