Individual Recognition, Territorial and Partnership Fidelity
While in earlier years, Whooping Crane chicks had been caught and banded (in the breeding areas of Wood Buffalo National Park), and it has delivered valuable insight into individual life history and behaviour of the cranes, this technique has been abandoned due to imminent danger for the cranes and the people performing the catching and banding activities.
By recording guard and unison calls followed by frequency analysis of the recording, a "voiceprint" of the individual crane (and of pairs) can be generated and compared over time. This technique was developed by B. Wessling and applied in the wintering refuge in Aransas and also partially in the breeding grounds in Canada over 5 years. It delivered interesting results, i.e. that besides a certain fraction of stable pairs with strong affinity to their territories, there is a big fraction of cranes who change partners and territories. Only one of the exciting results was to identify the "Lobstick" male when he still had his band; he later lost his band and was recognized by frequency analysis of his voice and then was confirmed to be over 26 years old, and still productive.
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