Today, Nate and Evan reach out to Davin Lopez and Anne Lacy to talk Whoopers (Whooping Cranes). They probably don't use that term in the field, but Evan thought it was seemed appropriate so he went with it.

Both Davin and Anne are involved with the reintroduction of Whooping Cranes (WHCR)  into the wild. In 1941 there were only 21 WHCR left in the entire world. Today there are about 850 Whooping Cranes in the world. Davin & Anne run us through how the situation got so dire in the 1900's.

They also discuss in length the process of reintroducing Whooping Cranes into the wild. How do they introduce captive bred chicks into a native population. Then how is migration facilitated with these new birds and how do each of their organizations help.

Whooping Cranes are extremely rare and we were grateful to get a chance to learn more about these endangered birds.

Happy listening and Happy birding.

Davin Lopez

Davin Lopez has been with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) since 2005. In 2011, he joined the WDNR’s Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation (formerly Endangered Resources) where some of his main duties are to serve as the state Whooping Crane reintroduction coordinator and state lead for the Kirtland’s Warbler conservation project. Previously he was in the WDNR’s Chronic Wasting Disease program where he started as a field technician and eventually took over as the statewide coordinator. He has previously worked at Colorado State University as a lab technician in a malaria research lab and as a zookeeper at the Denver and Pueblo Zoos. Davin was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, has bachelors’ degrees in biology and anthropology from New Mexico State University, and did his master’s degree work in population ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Anne Lacy

Anne grew up in Madison, leaving to attend college in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She received a B.A. in Psychology (1991) and returned to get a B.S. in Biology (1994). After working various jobs while taking graduate level Geographic Information Systems courses at the University of South Carolina, Anne was accepted to the graduate program in Biology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. After finishing coursework in Duluth in 2000, Anne accepted an internship at ICF, while also finishing her thesis. 

After completion of her M.S., Anne accepted a full-time position at ICF as a research associate in the Field Ecology Department (now the North America Program), working on an ongoing long-term study of sandhill cranes. She began working with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership in 2009 to study the ecology of the newly reintroduced Whooping Cranes in Wisconsin.

Useful links

https://www.savingcranes.org/

https://whoopermap.savingcranes.org/