Cranes follow plane like they would their mom

Updated: October 12, 2008 - 9:11 PM

Ultralight to lead 14 cranes to Florida this year.

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Another group of whooping cranes is set to follow an ultralight from Wisconsin to Florida this week.

Fourteen young cranes are to take off Friday from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin, barring inclement weather. Ultralight pilots there have been leading the impressionable birds on longer and longer training flights.

They'll head to wildlife refuges on Florida's Gulf Coast, passing over Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

The project is part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership's efforts to reintroduce a migratory flock of whooping cranes to the eastern United States.

They've been trained to regard the ultralight as a parent. This will be the partnership's eighth ultralight-led migration.

ASSOCIATED PRESS