Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations of cranes

Overall effectiveness category Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)
Number of studies: 1
Share Tweet Email

View assessment score

How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

51%
Certainty

17%
Harms

6%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Study locations

Key messages

A study from Canada over 32 years found that whooping cranes Grus americana successfully bred in captivity eight years after the first eggs were removed from the wild. The authors note that young ‘downy’ chicks suffered high mortality in captivity.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A study between 1967 and 1991 (Kuyt 1996) found that the removal of 355 whooping crane, Grus Americana, eggs from a wild population in Northwest Territories and Alberta, Canada, to start a captive population, did not negatively affect the wild population, which increased from 48 to 146 birds during the study period, with no nests being abandoned. The captive population had high hatching success (78–100% for 50 eggs shipped to Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre in 1967-74, and 77% for 166 eggs shipped to Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 1975-88) but ‘downy young’ suffered 68% mortality, mainly due to disease and anatomical abnormalities. However, cranes first bred in captivity in 1975 (in Patuxent), with five females laying 19 eggs in 1989 (nine hatching). This study is also discussed in ‘Release captive-bred individuals’, ‘Foster eggs or chicks with wild conspecifics’ and ‘Foster eggs or chicks with wild non-conspecifics (cross-fostering)’.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Kuyt E. (1996) Reproductive manipulation in the whooping crane Grus americana. Bird Conservation International, 6, 3-10.

Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Artificially incubate and hand-rear waders in captivity Action Link	Likely to be beneficial	4	Synopsis Link
Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations of storks and ibises Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	4	Synopsis Link
Wash contaminated semen and use it for artificial insemination Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	1	Synopsis Link