Note: These Challenge Questions coincide with the Spring 2006 Reports Crane Question #5 and #6 From: by way of Journey North <dfirmani@earthlink.net> Date: Sat Apr 01 2006 - 19:41:01 EST Dear Journey North, Question #5 The 2005 cranes arrived at the wintering grounds on December 13th and left on March 28th, so they spent 105 days on the wintering grounds. Crane #520 left the day before with crane #309 (from 2003). The average number of days spent on the wintering grounds for all five years is 115.2. It appears that there is a trend that the number of days on the wintering grounds is getting shorter. Are there any ideas on why this may be? Question #6 Crane #309 may have a better chance of getting to Wisconsin this time because crane #520 is with her. But this would help her only if #520 has a better recollection of where she fledged than #309 seems to have. Crane #309 has shown that she has a relatively good sense of the right latitude (how far north to go), but not a good sense of east or west or the appearance of the place she fledged. If #520 is able to help narrow down the exact location by recognition, they may reach the right longitude and arrive where they should be going. However, if #520 just follows #309 and does not assert her sense of where they should be going (which may happen since #520 is a younger crane and tends to be submissive, whereas #309 is very independent), then, they could end up in a range of places roughly along the right latitude, as #309 has done for the past two years. Marcus F. Home schooled, Mount Airy, Maryland, sixth grade   Received on Sat Apr 1 19:41:10 2006 Copyright 2006 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to jn-help@learner.org