Anne Lacy
Senior Manager–North America Program
Anne grew up in Madison, leaving to attend college in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She received a B.A. in Psychology (1991) and returned to get a B.S. in Biology (1994). After working various jobs while taking graduate level Geographic Information Systems courses at the University of South Carolina, Anne was accepted to the graduate program in Biology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. After finishing coursework in Duluth in 2000, Anne accepted an internship at ICF, while also finishing her thesis.
After completion of her M.S., Anne accepted a full-time position at ICF as a research associate in the Field Ecology Department (now the North America Program), working on an ongoing long-term study of sandhill cranes. She added the Whooping Crane work in 2009, joining the Whooping Crane Reintroduction Project to study the ecology of the newly reintroduced population in Wisconsin.
Talk: Understanding Whooping Cranes: Using Behavior Techniques to Address Conservation Needs
Once you see your first Whooping Crane (or cranes!), watching their behavior raises many questions. These might range from how they interact with each other and with other species, to why and when they are territorial, to how they respond to changes in their environment. Cranes are ideal subjects for behavior studies because of their large size and their social nature within a bonded pair, family group, and subadult cohorts. While scientific studies often customize the various categories, one can begin with the basic five: foraging, alert, social, comfort, and locomotion. In this workshop, International Crane Foundation staff will begin with an introduction of the behavior terms, crane morphology, and life history stages; then progress into guiding smaller groups in interpreting crane behavior using interactive videos of wintering Whooping Cranes. You will emerge from this experience ready to make your own observations, and understand when a crane is performing behaviors essential to their well-being, and when they are confronted with disturbance that could lead to detrimental changes in their condition.