Operation Migration

Uncommon card · No. 170940

Operation Migration was a nonprofit conservation organization, based in Ontario with a United States charity registered in Buffalo, New York, that used ultralight aircraft to teach migration routes to captive-raised birds. Its two Canadian founders, sculptor Bill Lishman and photographer Joe Duff, first conducted a guided migration of Canada geese in 1993, formally founding the organization in 1994. After experiments with geese and sandhill crane, Operation Migration became known for its work with the endangered whooping crane. As a member of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, Operation Migration led young whooping cranes from Wisconsin to Florida from 2001 to 2015, guiding 186 birds south to help establish a second migratory population of the species. In 2016 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ended its support for aircraft-led releases after biologists concluded that human-reared cranes were failing to raise chicks in the wild. Operation Migration withdrew from the partnership...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region, Public domain