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Field note

Crane in 1952s: Kushiro feeding

[164] [more-crane-64] In 1952s, the field log for Crane is headed “Kushiro feeding.” The figure kept beside that heading is 1990. It is a count or a date from the work, not a rank of the species’ worth. A zoo birthday card does not replace the log. A whooping crane captive egg after a human-led dance became ICF lore.

Tall wetland dancers whose red-crowned East Asian population is the atlas type and a conservation bottleneck. Why does this atlas use the red-crowned crane? The taxonomy hero is Grus japonensis -- Kushiro, the Korean DMZ and Izumi. Other Grus species appear as comparison, not as the page type.

How close did whooping cranes come to zero? The Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock was about 21 birds in 1941. That nadir still defines US recovery graphs. What did George Archibald do at ICF? He courtship-danced with a human-imprinted whooping crane named Tex so she would ovulate -- a 1980s method story, not a field census.

A large share of the migratory island population winters on one Kyushu floodplain. Influenza years there are species-level events. Do cranes mate with a lifelong dance? Pairs are typically socially monogamous. The dance is pair-bond and territorial display, not a fairy-tale wedding.

Keep 1952s, “Kushiro feeding,” and 1990 together or the note on Crane stops being that year’s record.1952s

Figures to keep

Year of the note
1952s
Figure to keep
1990
Species
Crane
Line in the log
Kushiro feeding

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