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Freshwater Pond Use By Whooping Cranes During A Wet Winter In Coastal Texas, Raymond D. Kirkwood, Elizabeth H. Smith
Freshwater Pond Use By Whooping Cranes During A Wet Winter In Coastal Texas, Raymond D. Kirkwood, Elizabeth H. Smith
Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
Wintering whooping cranes (Grus americana) in the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population have a restricted range along coastal Texas, and they rely on coastal salt marshes and tidal ponds for feeding and roosting habitat as well as upland freshwater ponds for dietary drinking water during drought periods. These upland ponds were used extensively by wintering whooping cranes during a multi-year drought (2011-2014), and use terminated when frequent localized rainfall events occurred across the wintering range. Despite optimum bay salinities that occurred during this study (February-March 2016) in a 6-week winter period, whooping cranes continued to use at least 1 of …