Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 12 april 2019
These 'eggs' are spying on whooping cranes to boost survival

reasonable aims. Scott A.
Shaffer, a San José State
University professor, has
been working with data
logger eggs since 2010 to
study a variety of birds in a
number of places. He said
the tiny, low-power sensors
that reorient tablet and
smartphone displays as the
devices are moved have
helped drive technology
that checks for egg turn-
ing, allowing second-by-
second studies of eggs.
The whooping crane data
logger eggs record tem-
perature, humidity and
position once a minute.
They can also detect when
eggs are turned — an im-
portant part of keeping
developing birds healthy.
They were developed by a
team of Canadian and U.S.
scientists who compared
nests of captive whooping
cranes and sandhill cranes
at the Calgary Zoo's Devo-
nian Wildlife Conservation
Centre to incubators, hop-
ing to improve the hatch-
ing rate of incubated eggs.
Their study, published in
2012, helped people raising
the cranes in Canada and
the U.S. to adjust incubator
In this March 13, 2019 photo provided by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and taken by a trail cam, biologist Eva temperature and humidity
Szyszkoski uses brooms to fend off a pair of nesting whooping cranes, so biologist Sara Zimorski, right, can replace a data logging
egg with the cranes' real egg in Jefferson Davis, La. settings, Moehrenschlager
Associated Press said.
The Species Survival Cen-
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY species' reproduction in a bon Nature Institute 's Spe- whooping cranes in the ter on New Orleans' west
Associated Press way that allows us to assist cies Survival Center in New wild. bank houses 36 of the 163
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sci- in the recovery," said Dr. Orleans, where they're in- "We've got some pairs that whooping cranes currently
entists are using fake eggs Axel Moehrenschlager, the cubated until they're nearly haven't been successful, living in captivity, including
to spy on whooping cranes Calgary Zoo's director of ready to hatch ... or not. and we want to see if we 10 destined for a new facil-
in hopes of learning why conservation and science. Then the biologists in Loui- could see what might be ity under construction by
some chicks die in the egg, The Calgary Zoo lent eight siana swap the real eggs going on with them," said the Dallas Zoo . None of the
while others hatch. of the spy eggs, more back into the nests . Sara Zimorski, a biologist birds at Audubon has yet
Data gathered by the spy properly known as "data The electronic data log- with the Louisiana Depart- begun nesting, Dunn said.
eggs could help biologists loggers," to Louisiana re- gers use infrared connec- ment of Wildlife and Fisher- Zimorski and fellow Louisi-
in Louisiana and Canada searchers. tions to transfer information ies . ana wildlife biologist Phillip
preserve the endangered The Louisiana wildlife biolo- to nearby computers. It's "In the bigger picture, we Vasseur put a few data log-
long-legged birds, which gists swap the egg-shaped sent for analysis to scien- don't know a lot about wild gers out last year to be sure
have made a tenuous re- data loggers, which Moeh- tists in Calgary, where the nest incubation," she said. the birds would tolerate
bound after dwindling al- renschlager said are en- only remaining wild natural The new information may the intrusion of eggs being
most to extinction in the cased in a plastic polymer, flock of whooping cranes is help improve provisions for swapped in and out.
1940s. for one of the two eggs based. captive pairs and settings Zimorski said the birds de-
"It's a fascinating way of that many cranes lay. The Whoopers are the tallest for incubators. cide much of the wild de-
spying on endangered real eggs come to Audu- birds and rarest cranes in Richard Dunn, curator at ployment, since many this
North America. They stand the Species Survival Cen- year are nesting in inac-
about 5 feet (1.5 meters) ter, says he hopes to learn if cessible swamps where bi-
tall, with black-tipped he needs to tweak incuba- ologists keep tabs on them
wings that span nearly 7 tor settings to more closely through airplane flyovers.
feet (2.1 meters). mimic Louisiana's climate, Both Zimorski and Dunn
Overhunting and habitat which is hotter and damper said there's nowhere near
loss cut their numbers to 21 than the northern settings enough data yet for any
in the 1940s, but with some where previous studies conclusions. "We need a
help from humans the num- were done. couple more years so we
ber had risen to about 850 A researcher who's not af- can get additional pairs
at the end of 2018. filiated with the Louisiana and some years of repeat
Louisiana is home to 74 effort said those are entirely data," Zimorski said.q