The Plight of the Whooping Crane

The trumpeting call of the whooping crane was once heard all across the Great Plains of North America. Today, only about 150 of these birds remain in the wild, and breeding programs have had mixed success--possibly because genetic diversity was lost when the population declined. At the Museum's Molecular Systematics Lab in Suitland, Maryland-- where molecular technology is used to study genetic diversity among populations and species--researchers may soon help change that.

Dead Birds to the Rescue
This Museum has the world's largest collection of preserved whooping cranes (Grus americana). Some were obtained more than 140 years ago, long before the population declined. Lab researchers Travis Glenn and Michael Braun are comparing DNA (the basic genetic material in all creatures) recovered from the skin and feathers of museum specimens with DNA from live birds. They hope to gauge the impact of population decline on genetic diversity and species viability.

After processing, DNA from whooping crane tissue has a pattern of bands that reads like a supermarket bar code. Braun and Glenn study this pattern to find similarities and differences among individuals.

This information can help ensure that close relatives are not paired in breeding programs. That way, when offspring are reintroduced into the wild, they'll have patterns of genetic diversity that are as close as possible to those of populations from long ago.

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