ULTRALIGHT MIGRATION LEADS 18 ENDANGERED WHOOPING CRANES OVER THE SKIES
OF GEORGIA

Pike County, Ga. (December 5, 2006) - Eighteen whooping crane chicks
have crossed into the state of Georgia, continuing their journey from
Wisconsin to Florida by reaching Gordon County, Georgia on December 3,
2006. Today, the cranes covered 106.5 miles in a flight of just over two
hours to Pike County, Georgia.

The whooping cranes are on a 1,228-mile ultralight-guided migration
from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin to
Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge along Florida's Gulf Coast.
They left Wisconsin on October 5, following four ultralight aircraft.

To date, the birds have traveled 902.9 miles. The Whooping Crane
Eastern Partnership (WCEP), an international coalition of public and
private groups, is conducting this project in an effort to reintroduce
this endangered species in eastern North America. For more information
and to follow the whooping crane's migration, visit the WCEP web site
at www.bringbackthecranes.org.

"The State of Georgia is a key partner in this unprecedented effort
to reintroduce whooping cranes into the eastern flyway," said Sam
Hamilton, Southeast Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, a WCEP founding partner. "We are grateful for the efforts of
the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and our other state
colleagues in helping to make this project a success."

Background

There are now 66 migratory whooping cranes in the wild in eastern North
America - including the first whooping crane chicks to hatch in the wild
in Wisconsin in more than a century.

The two wild whooping crane chicks hatched on June 22 at the Necedah
National Wildlife Refuge. The wild-hatched crane chicks stuck close to
their parents at Necedah NWR for much of the summer until fledging, or
gaining their flight feathers, in early September. One of the chicks
stayed behind when its parents and sibling moved from their territory,
and as of today that chick has not been located. The other chick, a
female, was leg-banded so that she can be tracked by WCEP biologists.

The ultralight-led Class of 2006 includes the first crane hatched from
the reintroduced eastern migratory whooping crane population. Hatched on
May 7 at the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center in Laurel, Md., Crane 2-06's parents are whooping cranes 13 (a
male) and 18 (a female) from the ultralight-led crane Class of 2002. In
addition to the 18 birds being led south by ultralights, biologists from
the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service reared four whooping cranes at Necedah NWR that were released in
the company of older cranes in hopes that the young birds learn the
migration route, part of WCEP's "Direct Autumn Release" program,
which supplements the successful ultralight migrations.

In 2001, project partner Operation Migration's pilots led the first
whooping crane chicks, conditioned to follow their ultralight
surrogates, south from Necedah NWR to Chassahowitzka NWR. Each
subsequent year, WCEP biologists and pilots have conditioned and guided
additional groups of juvenile cranes to Chassahowitzka.

The whooping crane chicks that take part in the reintroduction project
are hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. There,
the young cranes are introduced to ultralight aircraft and raised in
isolation from humans. To ensure the impressionable cranes remain wild,
project biologists and pilots adhere to a strict no-talking rule,
broadcast recorded crane calls and wear costumes designed to mask the
human form whenever they are around the cranes.

New classes of cranes are brought to Necedah NWR each June to begin a
summer of conditioning behind the ultralights to prepare them for their
fall migration. Pilots lead the birds on gradually longer training
flights at the refuge throughout the summer until the young cranes are
deemed ready to follow the aircraft along the migration route.

Most graduated classes of whooping cranes spend the summer in central
Wisconsin, where they use areas on or near the Necedah National Wildlife
Refuge, as well as various state and private lands. Reintroduced
whooping cranes have also spent time in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois,
Michigan and other states.

Project staff from the International Crane Foundation and the Service
track and monitor southbound cranes in an effort to learn as much as
possible about their unassisted migrations and the habitat choices they
make along the way. The birds are monitored during the winter in Florida
and tracked as they make their way north in the spring. ICF and Service
biologists, along with Wisconsin DNR biologists, continue to monitor the
birds while they are in their summer locations.

Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today,
there are only about 500 birds in existence, 350 of them in the wild.
Aside from the 66 Wisconsin-Florida birds, the only other migrating
population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in
the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Aransas National
Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast.

A non-migrating flock of approximately 55 birds lives year-round in
central Florida. The remaining 150 whooping cranes are in captivity in
zoos and breeding facilities around North America.

Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls,
live and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs
and aquatic plants. They are distinctive animals, standing five feet
tall, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.

WCEP asks anyone who encounters a whooping crane in the wild to please
give them the respect and distance they need. Do not approach birds on
foot within 600 feet; try to remain in your vehicle; do not approach in
a vehicle within 600 feet or, if on a public road, within 300 feet.
Also, please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the
birds can hear you. Finally, do not trespass on private property in an
attempt to view whooping cranes.

Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership founding members are the
International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration Inc., Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and
National Wildlife Health Center, the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and the
International Whooping Crane Recovery Team.

Many other flyway states, provinces, private individuals and
conservation groups have joined forces with and support WCEP by donating
resources, funding and personnel. More than 60 percent of the
project's estimated $1.8 million annual budget comes from private
sources in the form of grants, public donations and corporate sponsors.

For more information on the project, its partners and how you can help,
visit the WCEP website at http://www.bringbackthecranes.org.