Battle of Iwo Jima Date 19 February – 26 March 1945 (1 month and 1 week) Location Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, Japan Result American victory USAAF fighter aircraft able to escort B-29's on missions to Japan. Americans gain an emergency landing base for damaged aircraft returning from missions on Japan. Belligerents United States Japan Commanders and leaders U.S. Navy: Chester W. Nimitz Raymond A. Spruance Marc A. Mitscher William H. P. Blandy U.S. Marine Corps: Holland M. Smith Harry Schmidt Graves B. Erskine Clifton B. Cates Keller E. Rockey Tadamichi Kuribayashi † Takeichi Nishi † Sadasue Senda † Rinosuke Ichimaru † Units involved American: Ground units: V Amphibious Corps 3rd Marine Division 4th Marine Division 5th Marine Division 147th Infantry Regiment (separate) Aerial units: Seventh Air Force Naval units: 5th Fleet Joint Expeditionary Force (TF 51) Amphibious Support Force (TF 52) Attack Force (TF 53) Expeditionary Troops (TF 56) Fast Carrier Force (T...
Whooping crane
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| Distribution map of the whooping crane. blue: breeding, orange: wintering, green: year-round, grey: experimental year-round |
COMMON NAME:
Whooping cranes
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Grus americana
TYPE:
Birds
DIET:
Omnivore
AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD:
22 to 24 years
SIZE:
Body:
4.9 feet
wingspan:
7.5 feet
WEIGHT:
13.3 to 17.2 pounds
SIZE RELATIVE TO A 6-FT MAN:
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Gruiformes
Family:
Gruidae
Genus:
Grus
Species:
G. americana
whooping crane, (Grus americana), tallest American bird and one of the world’s rarest. At the beginning of the 21st century fewer than 300 whooping cranes remained in the wild. Most are part of a flock that migrates between Texas and Canada. Almost all the rest are part of a mainly nonmigrating Florida population.
These majestic white birds are the tallest in North America. They live in family groups and frequent marshes, shallow lakes, and lagoons. Cranes feed by foraging with their bills and gobbling up plants, shellfish, insects, fish, and frogs.
Similar to the sandhill crane, the whooping crane is almost 150 cm (5 feet) tall and has a wingspan of about 210 cm (7 feet). It is white with black-tipped wings, black legs, and a bare red face and crown. It has a whooping call purported to be audible for 2 miles (3.2 km). Courtship displays include a leaping dance replete with flapping, bowing, and other movements.
It is believed that the whooping crane had been declining in numbers for some time because of changing ecological conditions. Hunting and cultivation of land beginning in the 19th century hastened the process. The crane’s low rate of reproduction—one to three eggs per nest—coupled with a high rate of infant mortality retards recovery of the population. In 2006 two whooping crane chicks were hatched at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin; they were the first chicks hatched in the wild in the midwestern United States in more than a century.
The entire Florida flock used to be nonmigratory. In 2001, however, ornithologists in Wisconsin began to establish a second migrating flock by teaching the whoopers to follow ultralight aircraft and then flying to Florida. To accomplish this, hatchlings were raised by scientists dressed in suits resembling adult cranes—a necessary provision so that the birds could recognize other cranes and not become accustomed to humans. These elaborate efforts proved successful in 2002 when the cranes that followed the ultralight to Florida departed northward on their own in the spring. Each year another ultralight takes off southward from Wisconsin to teach another “class” of whooping cranes where to spend the winter.
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