Craneworld:
Where to find you are looking for

This website is under reconstruction. All previous information is still available here http://home.nikocity.de/craneworld/

The most recent news (starting from December 2004) can provisionally be found here
(please do not bookmark yet):

April 2009:
The German Newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" published another article about Dr. Wessling's contribution to saving the Whooping Crane in "Operation Migration" the article

March 2009:
The German newspaper „Welt“ reports about „Operation Migration“, the contribution by „craneworld“ and the success of the Whooping Crane reintroduction. the article

March 2009:
Another regional newspaper „Luebecker Nachrichten“ were triggered by this publication and reported about Dr. Wessling and his contribution to the Whooping Crane project in US. PDF

April 2007:
In the summer of 2006, the first whooping crane chick hatched in the wild in Wisconsin in more than a century survived and, led by its parents, migrated successfully to Florida and back. This wild chick hatched June 22 at Necedah NWR. Its sibling died just prior to fledging, presumably killed by a predator after its parents flew off with the other chick. In March, these cranes nicknamed "The First Family" returned back to Necedah. The chick separated from its parents as the parents nested and were observed incubating 1 egg in early April.

April 2007:
Due to increased business requirements and numerous longer business trips since mid of 2005, the recordings of 2006 have been less dense, die analysis took longer and was finally completed by my older son Bengt using his newly developed analysis program. After that, there was not enough time to summarize the results for this website as well, which I am now doing in April 2007.

February 2007:
The Aransas-Wood Buffalo population (AWBP) continued its historic growth with a record production year in 2006. >> details

December 2006:
One of the two chicks which hatched in June has survived. With its parents, it started the flight into the wintering grounds in Florida in November, using the route which the parents had learnt a few years ago by following the Ultralight Airplane. On Dec 11, I got the following email which electrified all of us. >> details and photo.

June 2006:
On June 22nd, 2006, the first two wild Whooping Crane chicks in the Eastern Migratory population hatched. The parents had been led by ultralight airplanes (and with my artificial acoustic communication) from Wisconsin to Florida in 2002 (second "class"). This hatch event happened even earlier than expected as the parents are only 4 years old. It is a sensational breakthrough in this unique release project. An official press release by WCEP will follow.

Juli 2005:
Duvenstedter Brook 2005: The season is finished, again interesting, but this time not so good observations have been made.

February 2005:
Summary of 5 years of acoustic monitoring (voiceprinting) of Whooping Cranes

December 2004:
Whooping Cranes USA / Canada - Sensational Result from first Analysis of the winter 2003 /2004 Recordings

For further information about behaviour, sonography, voiceprinting of cranes in the world: http://home.nikocity.de/craneworld/