Passport to Texas

Whooping crane pair at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

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This is Passport to Texas

The endangered Whooping Crane, one of the rarest birds in North America, makes its home at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge along the shallow bays of the Texas Gulf.

10— This is a species that almost went extinct. I mean, it was almost gone forever from the face of the earth.

Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez is Director of Conservation Programs at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. The species has been making a slow comeback from 16 birds in 1941 to 300 today. Watch Dr. Chavez-Ramirez and his colleagues trap adult Whoopers and fit them with GPS tracking devices during a segment of the PBS Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series. Wade Harrell, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is also on the show.

11—We’re going to learn a lot in terms of new places that they use that we didn’t know about before. So, I think there’s going to be a real paradigm shift in how we manage and conserve whooping cranes going forward.

It’s no easy task trapping these big birds, yet, once fit with trackers, team members, like Veterinarian Barry Hartup, believe the data returned to them will be eye-opening.

14— What we’re doing with capturing adult birds on the Aransas Refuge has never been done before. So, we’re learning a lot about these birds in terms of their movements, their survival, their overall health – what we can do to further their protection and conservation into the future.

Watch the segment on Whooping Cranes on the PBS Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series next week. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Whooping Cranes in Texas.

Wildlife: Whooping Cranes in Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Former Parks and Wildlife biologist, Leeann Linam, has a long history with Whooping Cranes.

11— [chuckles] well, I may age myself here, but we moved to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge when I was 12. And so I guess that means about 40 years or so I’ve been involved with whooping cranes.

Whoopers winter at the refuge, where Leeann’s father worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. After a low of 15 birds, and more than 70 years of conservation, we only reached 300 members in the migrating flock in 2013.

24 – Part of it is the nature of the animal, itself. Whooping cranes are one of these birds designed to be around for a long time. They live 25 to 30 years and more (in captivity). They don’t reproduce until they’re four or five years old; they usually only raise one chick successfully per year. So it just takes a while. You just have to be patient and provide the right conditions for a long time and then the numbers start to add up.

As their population increases and becomes more widespread, maintaining an accurate tally of the birds becomes a challenge. Whoopers are moving farther up the coast away from their traditional wetland habitat.

07 – Some of the rice country in Horton County and most interestingly, in Central Texas, we’ve had some whooping cranes wintering in Williamson County.

The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series and funds rainbow trout stocking in Texas…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Relocating Desert Bighorn Sheep, photo by Earl Nottingham, TPWD

TPW TV: Home Again (Desert Bighorn Sheep) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There’s a special quality about Far West Texas; and, as Froylan Hernandez can tell you, when the Desert Bighorn Sheep is on the landscape, it’s awe-inspiring.

08—When I’m up on top of Elephant Mountain, my first glimpse of them, it’s overwhelming. Even if it’s just a single animal.

Hernandez is Desert Bighorn Sheep Program Leader for Texas Parks & Wildlife. Meet him on an upcoming segment of the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series airing the week of December 8.

20—Historically, the native Texas Desert Bighorn Sheep occurred in about 16 mountain ranges out here in the Trans Pecos. Mainly due to unregulated hunting, diseases associated with the introduction of domestic sheep and goats, and net wire fencing – they brought the demise of the Desert Bighorn. And by the early 1960s, they were all gone from Texas.

For more than fifty years, Texas parks and Wildlife and partners have worked to restore the Bighorn to its home range in Texas.

08—Luckily, the population in Texas is now big enough, we’re using those sources to transplant the animals to Big Bend Ranch State park.

And Big Bend Ranch SP superintendent Ron Trevizo welcomes them to a new home on the range.

07—When we started talking about the release coming in – to release the Desert Bighorn Sheep at Big Bend Ranch, I’m like – Yea, that’s great!

See how agency biologists translocate Desert Bighorn Sheep to Big Bend Ranch SP on a segment of the TPW PBS TV series, the week of December 8.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Alice Whitelaw and Tia, inspecting boats for zebra mussels in California

Conservation: Conservation Detection Dogs Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Most dogs like to work. And Pete Coppolillo is hiring. He is Executive Director of Working Dogs for Conservation in Bozeman, Montana. Since the mid-1990s, his organization’s trained dogs as a non-invasive alternative method for collecting data on hard to find wildlife.

05—By non-invasive, I mean we don’t have to capture them, we don’t have to handle them, we don’t even have to see them.

Then, just how are researchers using dogs?

06—So, the idea is we train a dog to find their scat, usually, which to non-biologists is a polite word for poop.

By detecting scat, the dogs help researchers determine the range, sex, and diet (among other things) of certain wildlife species. Pete said they first trained dogs to sniff out grizzly bear and wolf scat, but didn’t stop there.

28—Dogs can do everything from scat to live animal work to invasive weeds. Even invertebrates, like Emerald Ash Borer; they can find their larvae or their eggs. And, [we] even [use the dogs to detect] aquatic invasives like zebra and quagga mussels – to inspect boats. Because, the mussels can be in cracks, or inside, where a visual inspection can’t see them. Or the dogs can even detect the veligers, which are microscopic larvae that we can’t see.

Not all dogs are suited to this work. Learn more about these dogs at Working Dogs for Conservation.

More on that tomorrow. The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Endangered Ocelot

Wildlife: Ocelot Mortality in South Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

An estimated 50 endangered ocelots survive in the thick brush and shelters of the Lower Rio Grande Valley… including Cameron County. As the human population there grows, so do cat/car run-ins. The USFW service reported four ocelot deaths on Highway 100, which goes to South Padre Island, in as many years.

09—TXDOT is working with US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine the best way to keep ocelots off the road, but also allow for disbursement into other habitat areas.

When it comes to roads and wildlife, TXDOT gets involved. Octavio Saenz works out their Pharr office.

19—We’re also trying to determine the best locations to place wildlife crossings to allow the ocelot and other wildlife to travel under the roadways. And, in the interim, we’re trying to determine the best locations to fence and allow the ocelot to travel across the roadways at narrow locations to minimize the number of mortalities on the roadway.

Until then, if you live in or are visiting that area of Texas, be aware of who and what shares the road with you.

13—In Cameron County, look out for the wildlife crossing signs; slow down to a safe speed when you see the signs. And also, be alert – especially during the dawn and the dusk hours – when the ocelot will be most likely traveling.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.