By: Ellis, David
ISBN: 0-88839-480-2
Binding: Trade Paper
Size: 8.5" X 5.5"
Pages: 184
Photos: 44
Illustrations: 15
Publication Date: 2001

PR Highlights: A flock of cranes on a long-distance migration.
PHOTO Highlights: 24 page color photo section, line drawings & maps

Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

Description: A story of experimental crane migration & release.Wings Across the Desert documents a quest to determine if a flock of cranes could be trained to follow a truck on a long-distance migration and arrive wild enough to survive after release. This fast-moving, and often humorous, odyssey describes the training of tiny crane chicks and then the truck-led convoy of the grown birds on a bone-jarring, backroad migration over the mountains and across the deserts of Arizona. David Ellis' cranes and his team of unshaven, obsessively dedicated craniacs suffer collisions with powerlines, eagle attacks and close calls with an array or trains, trucks and cars.

The mood of this true adventure story varies from playful to mournful as the wonder and harshness of nature imprints the journey's outcome.

 

David H. Ellis, Ph.D. is a research zoologist with the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, U.S.A. He has studied cranes for fifteen years and leads behavior and ecological studies of cranes and raptors in the United Stated and internationally. He is the author of over one hundred publications.