Whooping cranes are subject to predation from both terrestrial and aerial predators Some common terrestrial predators include black bear, wolverines, gray wolves, red foxes, lynx, bobcats, coyotes, and raccoons. Bald eagles, northern ravens, and golden eagles are all aerial predators of cranes. Golden eagles have been reported to attack whooping cranes in the air and are a significant threat during migration. Whooping cranes fly at very high altitudes during migration, which may be a strategy to avoid these fatal aerial attacks.
Whooping cranes are the most vulnerable in the first year and especially up until fledging. Dry years make the young particularly vulnerable as the nests are easily accessible to terrestrial predators. They have a number of strategies for preventing attacks such as alarm calls or a distraction display for large predators. The most common display is a slow walk strut, with the body turned sideways to the predator and the feet lifted high. This emphasizes the crane's large size and may deter an attack. If the predator persists, a whooping crane lowers its bill to the ground and releases a low growl. As a final warning before a physical attack, a crane will face the predator, and spread and droop its wings while extending its neck. When a large predator nears the nest, the incubating parent may leave the nest to lure the predator away by dragging its wing in a distraction display.
Known Predators:
Adult whooping cranes are large, long-legged birds with long necks that measure 130 to 160 cm in length, and feature a wingspan of 200 to 230 cm. They are primarily white in color. Their primary wing feathers and long legs are black, while their toes are grayish-rose in color. The crown, lores, and malar areas are bare skin that varies in color from bright red to black. The bare skin is covered in short, black bristles that are the most dense around the edges of bare skin. They feature yellow eyes and a bill that is pinkish at the base, but mostly gray or olive in color. Both sexes resemble each other, however, the male whooping crane weighs more. Adult males and adult females weigh an average of 7.3 kg and 6.4 kg respectively. Young whooping crane chicks are cinnamon or brown in color along the back and a dull gray or brown on the underbelly. Juvenile whooping cranes have feather-covered heads and white plumage which is blotched cinnamon or brown. The area of the crown which becomes bare skin has short feathers.
Closely related sandhill cranes are gray and smaller than whooping cranes but they may appear white, especially in the sun. In flight, wood storks resemble whooping cranes, but they feature black secondary as well as primary feathers, yellow feet, and a short neck that is bare, dark skin.
Range mass: 4.5 to 8.5 kg.
Range length: 130 to 160 cm.
Average length: 150 cm.
Range wingspan: 200 to 230 cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike; male larger
The estimated longevity of wild whooping cranes is 22 to over 30 years. In captivity, the birds are expected to live up to 35 to 40 years old. The mortality of whooping cranes in their first year is approximately 27%. The survival rate of females for their first year is 55% the survival rate of males. Diseases, such as avian tuberculosis and avian cholera, are possible mortality causes for whooping cranes. A cause of mortality of some captive chicks has been intestinal coccidia parasites. Drought during the breeding season results in greater mortality of the young, since they have to travel farther for food resources and are at risk of attack by terrestrial predators.
Typical lifespan
Status: wild: 22 to 30 years.
Typical lifespan
Status: captivity: 35 to 40 years.
Whooping crane habitat, especially for nesting, consists of open areas close to large amounts of water and vegetation. The open area is especially important to visually detect possible predators. Whooping cranes nest in wetland and marsh areas or close to shallow ponds or lakes. Bulrush (Scirpus validus) marshes and diatom ponds are common and bogs are avoided. The habitats chosen typically include willow, sedge meadows, mudflats, and bulrush and cattail (Typha latifolia) marshes. These habitat types not only provide protection for predators but also provide a variety of food opportunities. During migration, whooping cranes seek similar habitats in wetlands, submerged sandbars and agricultural fields. In the winter, wet habitats are also sought out in the form of brackish bays and coastal marshes. Grus americana prefers marshes with a typical pH range of 7.6 to 8.3.
The elevation varies considerably due to the wintering and breeding ranges for whooping cranes. The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of Mexico is at low elevations between 0 to 10 m. The northern breeding grounds in the Wood Buffalo National Park can reach elevations of up to 945 m.
Range elevation: 0 to 945 m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Aquatic Biomes: lakes and ponds; coastal ; brackish water
Wetlands: marsh ; swamp
Other Habitat Features: agricultural
Grus americana is a native migratory bird species within the Nearctic region. The historical breeding range extends throughout the central United States and Canada and also used to include parts of north central Mexico. Few wild populations occur today. One population breeds within the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and overwinters along the Gulf Coast in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge of Texas. A second, minute population spends the summer in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, and migrates to their wintering grounds in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. A third introduced, non-migratory population resides in the Kissimmee Prairie, Florida. When the Wood Buffalo and Rocky Mountain populations migrate, they stop over in the United States and Canada, in North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Montana, and Saskatchewan.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Whooping cranes are omnivorous and eat a variety of plant and animal material both on the ground and in water. The primary wintering foods are blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) and wolfberry fruits (Lycium carolinianum). Other wintering foods include: clams, acorns, snails, grasshoppers, mice, voles and, snakes. Among foods they eat in winter, blue crabs provide the highest crude protein value and wolfberries have the highest metabolic energy and lipid content. On migratory stopovers through the central United States and Saskatchewan, whooping cranes feed on plant tubers and waste grains in agricultural fields. While on breeding grounds their diet consists of minnows, insects, frogs, snakes, mice, berries, crayfish, clams and snails.
Animal Foods: mammals; amphibians; reptiles; fish; insects; mollusks; terrestrial worms; aquatic crustaceans
Plant Foods: roots and tubers; seeds, grains, and nuts; fruit
Primary Diet: omnivore
Whooping cranes are both predators and prey to a number of species. Because there are so few of them, they probably can't serve as the main prey to another species. Whooping cranes do play host to some parasites, and Coccidia parasites in particular. These have been found in both captive and wild whooping cranes and are transmitted through feces. These parasites include Eimeria gruis and E. reichenowi. Coccidiosis is less likely to occur in wild populations due to the large territory and small brood size of whooping cranes.
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
Whooping cranes serve as an important model for the positive effects of wildlife conservation and management. It is a valuable symbol of conservation and international co-operation between governments for many people. Thousands of people visit the wintering site, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, each year in order to see whooping cranes.
Positive Impacts: ecotourism
There are no adverse effects of whooping cranes on humans.
Whooping cranes have been the center of many conservation projects. Even though they are still endangered, they have recovered from levels of near extinction in the 1940's to 1950's. Whooping cranes had a total population of 21 in the winter of 1954 and had approximately 260 individuals in 2009. There are a number of ways in which recovery of whooping cranes has been promoted. This includes protection through laws such as, the United States Migratory Bird Act. There are also intense captive breeding and re-introduction efforts. In some cases eggs produced by captive pairs are cared for by human caretakers dressed as whooping cranes, also known as costume-rearing. These re-introduced birds have experienced problems with migration, and it is presumed that juvenile birds learn migration routes from their parents. To help these birds, small, white planes are used as "parent" birds that guide the juveniles on their first journey to their wintering grounds. These methods have had mixed success, but the population is increasing overall.
US Migratory Bird Act: protected
US Federal List: endangered
CITES: appendix i
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: endangered
The key form of communication for whooping cranes is vocal communication. Many calls have been identified for this species including: contact calls, stress calls, distress calls, food-begging calls, flight-intention calls, alarm calls, hissing, flight calls, guard calls, location calls, precopulation calls, unison calls, and nesting calls. Territory defense is linked with the unison and guard calls. Unison calls are also important in pair formation. The calls of whooping cranes are important as they serve in deterring predators, warnings of attack, protecting and caring for the young, and locating other individuals within the species. Like all birds, whooping cranes perceive their environment through visual, auditory, tactile, and chemical stimuli.
Communication Channels: visual ; acoustic
Other Communication Modes: duets
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
The genus Grus is comprised of ten crane species which is divided into four subgroups. Whooping cranes belong to the subgroup "the Group of Five" which also includes Eurasian cranes (Grus grus), hooded cranes (G. monacha), black-necked cranes (G. nigricollis) and red-crowned cranes (G. japonensis).
Whooping cranes are monogamous and form pairs around two or three years old. A pair bond develops through a variety of courtship behaviors including unison walks, unison calls, and courtship dances. Courtship usually begins with dancing, which starts with bowing, hopping, and wing flapping by one, and then both individuals. Each crane repeatedly leaps into the air on stiff legs, which continues until both individuals leap a few times in sync with each other. During the courtship dance the male may also jump over the female as she bows her head toward her body. Calling in unison is also important in pair maintenance and involves a duet between the female and male. The male has a lower call and positions the head straight up and behind vertical while the female is completely vertical or forward of vertical. Once one of the individuals begins the call the other joins in.
Once paired, whooping cranes breed seasonally and start nesting at approximately four years of age. Prior to copulation either individual begins walking slowly, with their bill pointed up, and neck forward and fully extended. This individual releases a low growl and the other individual walks with the same style behind the first and calling with its bill up toward the sky. Copulation commonly occurs at daybreak, however it can occur during any time in the day. Nesting pairs generally mate for life, but one will find a new mate following the death of the other.
Mating System: monogamous
Whooping cranes reproduce once a year from late April to May. Males and females participate in building a flat, ground nest usually on a mound of vegetation surrounded by water. In periods of drought, nesting sites can become no longer suitable for use. Typically two eggs are laid and the incubation period is 30 to 35 days. The sex ratio is nearly equal between the number of males and females hatched. The abandonment or loss of a nest is rare but breeding pairs can re-nest if either occurs within the first fifteen days of incubation. Fledging occurs between 80 to 100 days but the young remain with their parents until they reach independence at 9 months of age. Parents continue to feed and care for the fledgelings. Sexual maturity is reached between 4 and 5 years old.
Breeding interval: Whooping cranes breed once a year.
Breeding season: Whooping cranes breed from late April to May.
Range eggs per season: 1 to 3.
Range time to hatching: 30 to 35 days.
Average time to hatching: 30 days.
Range fledging age: 80 to 100 days.
Average time to independence: 9 months.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 4 to 5 years.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 4 to 5 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Average birth mass: 212 g.
Average eggs per season: 2.
Both the male and female share equally in incubation responsibilities. The individual not incubating guards the nest from predators. Once hatched, young chicks are brooded by their parents at night or during bad weather. When a chick displays hunger, referred to as food begging, the parents provide them with food. The female provides the food more often than the male. The adult grasps the food in its bill and the chicks peck at the food. Food choices are initially worms and insects and grow is size as the chick develops. The young gradually start to feed independently. Food begging can be seen in young birds six to nine months old. The majority of juvenile birds completely leave their parents at the end of spring migration the following year.
Parental Investment: precocial ; male parental care ; female parental care ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Male, Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Male); pre-independence (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female); post-independence association with parents; extended period of juvenile learning
The whooping crane (Grus americana) is the tallest North American bird, named for its whooping sound. It is an endangered crane species. Along with the sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis), it is one of only two crane species native to North America. The whooping crane's lifespan is estimated to be 22 to 24 years in the wild. After being pushed to the brink of extinction by unregulated hunting and loss of habitat to just 21 wild and two captive whooping cranes by 1941, conservation efforts have led to a partial recovery.[3] The total number of cranes in the surviving migratory population, plus three reintroduced flocks and in captivity, exceeds 800 birds as of 2020.
An adult whooping crane is white with a red crown and a long, dark, pointed bill. However, immature whooping cranes are cinnamon brown. While in flight, their long necks are kept straight and their long dark legs trail behind. Adult whooping cranes' black wing tips are visible during flight.
On average, the whooping crane is the fifth largest extant species of crane in the world.[4] Whooping cranes are the tallest bird native to North America and are anywhere from the third to the fifth heaviest species on the continent, depending on which figures are used. The species can reportedly stand anywhere from 1.24 to 1.6 m (4 ft 1 in to 5 ft 3 in) in height.[5][6] Wingspan, at least typically, is from 2 to 2.3 m (6 ft 7 in to 7 ft 7 in).[5] Widely reported averages put males at a mean mass of 7.3 kg (16 lb), while females weigh 6.2 kg (14 lb) on average (Erickson, 1976).[7] However, one small sample of unsexed whooping cranes weighed 5.82 kg (12.8 lb) on average.[8] Typical weights of adults seem to be between 4.5 and 8.5 kg (9.9 and 18.7 lb).[4][5] The body length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, averages about 132 cm (4 ft 4 in).[9] The standard linear measurements of the whooping cranes are a wing chord length of 53–63 cm (21–25 in), an exposed culmen length of 11.7–16 cm (4.6–6.3 in) and a tarsus of 26–31 cm (10–12 in).[4][10] The only other very large, long-legged white birds in North America are: the great egret, which is over a foot (30 cm) shorter and one-seventh the weight of this crane; the great white heron, which is a morph of the great blue heron in Florida; and the wood stork. All three other birds are at least 30% smaller than the whooping crane. Herons and storks are also quite different in structure from the crane. Larger individuals (especially males of the larger races) of sandhill crane can overlap in size with adult whooping cranes but are obviously distinct at once for their gray rather than white color.[11][12]
Their calls are loud and can carry several kilometers. They express "guard calls", apparently to warn their partner about any potential danger. A crane pair jointly calls rhythmically ("unison call") after waking in the early morning, after courtship, and when defending their territory. The first unison call ever recorded in the wild was taken in the whooping cranes' wintering area of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge during December 1999.[13]
At one time, the range for the whooping crane extended throughout midwestern North America as well as southward to Mexico.[14][1] By the mid-20th century, the muskeg of the taiga in Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta and Northwest Territories, Canada, and the surrounding area had become the last remnant of the former nesting habitat of the Whooping Crane Summer Range. However, with the recent Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership Reintroduction Project, whooping cranes nested naturally for the first time in 100 years in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin, United States, and these have subsequently expanded their summer range in Wisconsin and surrounding states, while reintroduced experimental non-migratory populations have nested in Florida and Louisiana.
Whooping cranes nest on the ground, usually on a raised area in a marsh. The female lays 1 or 2 eggs, usually in late-April to mid-May. The blotchy, olive-coloured eggs average 2½ inches in breadth and 4 inches in length (60 by 100 mm), and weigh about 6.7 ounces (190 g). The incubation period is 29–31 days. Both parents brood the young, although the female is more likely to directly tend to the young. Usually no more than one young bird survives in a season. The parents often feed the young for 6–8 months after birth and the terminus of the offspring-parent relationship occurs after about 1 year.[15]
Breeding populations winter along the Gulf coast of Texas, United States, near Rockport on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and along Sunset Lake in Portland, Matagorda Island, Isla San Jose, and portions of the Lamar Peninsula and Welder Point, which is on the east side of San Antonio Bay.[16]
The Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma is a major migratory stopover for the crane population, hosting over 75% of the species annually.[17][18]
As many as nine whooping cranes were observed at various times on Granger Lake in Central Texas in the 2011/2012 winter season. Drought conditions in 2011 exposed much of the lake bed, creating ample feeding grounds for these cranes just as they were taking their autumn migration through Texas.[19]
Their many potential nest and brood predators include American black bear, wolverine, gray wolf, cougar, red fox, Canada lynx, bald eagle, and common raven. Golden eagles have killed some young whooping cranes and fledglings.[20] Due to their large size, adult birds in the wild have few predators.[4][21] However, American alligators have taken a few whooping cranes in Florida, and the bobcat has killed many captive-raised whooping cranes in Florida and Texas.[11][22] In Florida, bobcats have caused the great majority of natural mortalities among whooping cranes, including several ambushed adults and the first chick documented to be born in the wild in 60 years.[22][23][24][25][26] Adult cranes can usually deter or avoid attacks by medium-sized predators such as coyotes when aware of a predator's presence, but the captive-raised cranes haven't learned to roost in deep water, which makes them vulnerable to ambush.[27][28] As they are less experienced, juvenile cranes may be notably more vulnerable to ambushes by bobcats.[29] Patuxent Wildlife Research Center scientists believe that this is due to an overpopulation of bobcats caused by the absence or decrease in larger predators (the endangered Florida panther and the extirpated red wolf) that formerly preyed on bobcats.[22] At least 12 bobcats have been trapped and relocated in an attempt to save the cranes.[28]
These birds forage while walking in shallow water or in fields, sometimes probing with their bills. They are omnivorous but tend to be more inclined to animal material than most other cranes. Only the red-crowned crane may have a more carnivorous diet among living cranes.[30] In their Texas wintering grounds, this species feeds on various crustaceans, mollusks, fish (such as eel), small reptiles and aquatic plants. Potential foods of breeding birds in summer include frogs, small rodents, small birds, fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, clams, snails, aquatic tubers, and berries. Six studies from 1946 to 2005 have reported that blue crabs are a significant food source[31] for whooping cranes wintering at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, constituting up to 90 percent of their energy intake in two winters; 1992–93 and 1993–94.
Waste grain, including wheat, barley, and corn, is an important food for migrating whooping cranes,[11] but whooping cranes don't swallow gizzard stones and digest grains less efficiently than sandhill cranes.
In earlier years, whooping crane chicks had been caught and banded (in the breeding areas of Wood Buffalo National Park), which has delivered valuable insight into individual life history and behaviour of the cranes. This technique, however, has been abandoned due to imminent danger for the cranes and the people performing the catching and banding activities.
By recording guard and unison calls followed by frequency analysis of the recording, a "voiceprint" of the individual crane (and of pairs) can be generated and compared over time. This technique was developed by B. Wessling and applied in the wintering refuge in Aransas and also partially in the breeding grounds in Canada over 5 years.[32] It delivered interesting results, i.e. that besides a certain fraction of stable pairs with strong affinity to their territories, there is a big fraction of cranes who change partners and territories.[33] Only one of the exciting results was to identify the "Lobstick" male when he still had his band; he later lost his band and was recognized by frequency analysis of his voice and then was confirmed to be over 26 years old and still productive.
Whooping cranes are believed to have been naturally rare, and major population declines caused by habitat destruction and overhunting led them to them become critically endangered. Even with hunting bans, illegal hunting has continued in spite of potential substantial financial penalties and possible prison time.[34][35][36] The population went from an estimated 10,000+ birds before the settling of Europeans on the continent to 1,300-1,400 birds by 1870. By 1938 there were just 15 adults in a single migratory flock, plus about thirteen additional birds living in a non-migratory population in Louisiana, but the latter were scattered by a 1940 hurricane that killed half of them, while the survivors never again reproduced in the wild.[37][38]
In the early 1960s, Robert Porter Allen, an ornithologist with the National Audubon Society, appeared as a guest challenger on the network television show To Tell The Truth, which gave the Conservation movement some opportunity to update the public on their efforts to save the whooping crane from extinction. His initial efforts focused on public education, particularly among farmers and hunters. Beginning in 1961, the Whooping Crane Conservation Association (WCCA), was established to improve the status of the whooping cranes. This non-profit organization functioned largely by influencing federal, state and provincial political decisions and educating the general public about the critical status of the bird. The whooping crane was declared endangered in 1967.
Allen had begun an effort at captive breeding with a female crane named 'Josephine', the sole survivor of the Louisiana population, injured and taken into captivity in 1940, and two successive injured birds from the migratory population, 'Pete' and 'Crip', at the Audubon Zoo and the Aransas refuge. Josephine and Crip produced the first whooping crane born in captivity in 1950, but this chick only lived four days, and though decades of further efforts produced more than 50 eggs before Josephine's death in 1965, only four chicks survived to adulthood and none of them bred.[37][39] At the same time, the wild population was not thriving. In spite of the efforts of conservationists, hunting bans and educational programs, the aging wild population would gain only 10 birds in the first 25 years of monitoring, with entire years passing without a single new juvenile joining those that returned to the Texas wintering grounds. This led to a renewed tension between those who favored efforts to preserve the wild population and others seeing a captive breeding program as the only hope for whooping crane survival, even though it must depend on individuals withdrawn from the extremely-vulnerable wild population.[37]
Identification of the location of the summer breeding grounds of the whooping cranes at Wood Buffalo National Park in 1954 allowed more detailed study of their reproductive habits in the wild, and led to the observation that while many breeding pairs laid two eggs, rearing efforts seemed to favor a single chick, and both chicks would almost never survive to fledge. It was concluded that the removal of a single egg from a two-egg clutch should still leave a single hatchling most likely to survive, while providing an individual for captive breeding. Such removals in alternating years showed no decline in the reproductive success of the wild cranes. The withdrawn eggs were transferred to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, where approaches for hatching and rearing crane chicks in captivity had already been optimized using the more-numerous sandhill cranes.[37] Initial challenges getting the resultant birds to reproduce, even using artificial insemination approaches, would give impetus to the first, unsuccessful attempt at reintroduction, by swapping whooping crane eggs into the nests of the more numerous sandhill cranes as a way to establish a backup population.[37]
In 1976, with the wild population numbering only 60 birds and having increased at an average of only one bird per year over the past decades,[37] ornithologist George W. Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, began working with 'Tex', a female whooping crane hatched at the San Antonio Zoo in 1967 to Crip and his new mate, the wild-captured 'Rosie', to get her to lay a fertile egg through artificial insemination.[39][40] Archibald pioneered several techniques to rear cranes in captivity, including the use of crane costumes by human handlers. Archibald spent three years with Tex, acting as a male crane – walking, calling, dancing – to shift her into reproductive condition. As Archibald recounted the tale on The Tonight Show in 1982, he stunned the audience and host Johnny Carson with the sad end of the story – the death of Tex shortly after the hatching of her one and only chick, named 'Gee Whiz'.[41][42] Gee Whiz was successfully raised and mated with female whooping cranes. The techniques pioneered at Patuxent, the International Crane Foundation and a program at the Calgary Zoo would give rise to a robust multi-institutional captive breeding program that would supply the cranes used in several additional captive breeding and reintroduction programs. A single male crane, 'Canus', rescued in 1964 as an injured wild chick and taken to Patuxent in 1966, would by the time of his 2003 death be the sire, grandsire or great-grandsire of 186 captive-bred whooping cranes.[43] In 2017, the decision was made for the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center to end its 51-year effort to breed and train whooping cranes for release, due to changing priorities and in the face of budget cuts by the Trump administration. Their flock of 75 birds was moved in 2018 to join captive breeding programs at zoos or private foundations, including the Calgary Zoo, the International Crane Foundation, the Audubon Species Survival Center in Louisiana, and other sites in Florida, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. This relocation is expected to negatively impact the reproductive success of the captive cranes, at least in the short term, and concerns were raised over its impact on the reintroduction efforts for which the Patuxent program had been providing birds.[44][45]
Meanwhile, the wild crane population began a steady increase, such that in 2007 the Canadian Wildlife Service counted 266 birds at Wood Buffalo National Park, with 73 mating pairs that produced 80 chicks, 39 of which completed the fall migration,[46] while a United States Fish and Wildlife Service count in early 2017 estimated that 505 whooping cranes, including 49 juveniles, had arrived at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge that season.[47] As of 2020, there were an estimated 677 birds living in the wild, in the remnant original migratory population as well as three reintroduced populations, while 177 birds were at the time held in captivity at 17 institutions in Canada and the United States,[48] putting the total population at over 800.
The wild cranes winter in marshy areas along the Gulf Coast in and surrounding the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. An environmental group, The Aransas Project, has sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), maintaining that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to ensure adequate water supplies for the birds' range. The group attributes the deaths of nearly two dozen whooping cranes in the winter of 2008 and 2009 to inadequate flows from the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers.[49] In March 2013 during continuing drought conditions, a federal court ordered TCEQ to develop a habitat protection plan for the crane and to cease issuing permits for waters from the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers. A judge amended the ruling to allow TCEQ to continue issuing permits necessary to protect the public's health and safety. An appeals court eventually granted a stay in the order during the appeals process.[49][50] The Guadalupe-Blanco and San Antonio river authorities joined TCEQ in the lawsuit, warning that restricting the use of their waters would have serious effects on the cities of New Braunfels and San Marcos as well as major industrial users along the coast.[49] To address the potential of future crowding that may result from the increasing migratory population, in 2012 and following years, purchases of small plots of land and acquisition of conservation easements covering larger areas has led to the protection of tens of thousands of additional acres of potential coastal habitat near the Aransas reserve.[51][52][53][54] A large purchase of over 17,000 acres in 2014 was paid for with $35 million made available from the settlement over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and an additional $15 million raised by a Texas parks non-profit.[55]
Concerns have been raised over the effects of climate change on the migratory cycle of the surviving wild population. The cranes arrive on their nesting grounds in April and May to breed and begin their nesting. When young whooping cranes are ready to leave the nest, they depart in September and follow the migratory trail through Texas.[56]
Several attempts have been made to establish other breeding populations outside of captivity.
A major hurdle with some of these reintroduced populations has been deaths to illegal hunting.[88] Over a period of two years, five of the approximately 100 whooping cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population were illegally shot and killed. One of the dead cranes was the female known as "First Mom". In 2006, she and her mate were the first eastern captive raised and released pair to successfully raise a chick to adulthood in the wild. This was a particular blow to that population because whooping cranes do not yet have an established successful breeding situation in the East. On March 30, 2011, Wade Bennett, 18, of Cayuga, Indiana and an unnamed juvenile pleaded guilty to killing First Mom. After killing the crane, the juvenile had posed holding up her body. Bennett and the juvenile were sentenced to a $1 fine, probation, and court fees of about $500, a penalty which was denounced by various conservation organizations as being too light. The prosecuting attorney has estimated that the cost of raising and introducing to the wild one whooping crane could be as much as $100,000.[89][90][91][92] Overall, the International Crane Foundation estimates that the nearly 20% of deaths among the reintroduced cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population are due to shootings.[88]
Illegal shootings have accounted for an even larger proportion of mortality among the birds introduced into the Louisiana population,[93] with about 10% of the first 147 released cranes being shot and killed. Two juveniles were apprehended for a 2011 incident,[94] a Louisiana man was sentenced to 45 days imprisonment and a $2500 fine after pleading guilty to a killing in November 2014,[95] and a Texas man was fined $25,000 for a January 2016 shooting and barred from possessing firearms during a 5-year probation period, on subsequent violation of which he was given an 11-month custodial sentence.[96][97] On the other hand, a Louisiana man cited for a July 2018 shooting received probation, community service and hunting and fishing restrictions but no fine or firearms restriction.[87] Two Louisiana juveniles were cited in 2018 for a May 2016 incident.[98]
In the season one King of the Hill episode Straight as an Arrow, Bobby Hill incapacitates an endangered Whooping Crane, one of five left in the world. They mistake it for being dead, and spend the episode trying to get it out of the nature preserve to bury it.
The whooping crane (Grus americana) is the tallest North American bird, named for its whooping sound. It is an endangered crane species. Along with the sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis), it is one of only two crane species native to North America. The whooping crane's lifespan is estimated to be 22 to 24 years in the wild. After being pushed to the brink of extinction by unregulated hunting and loss of habitat to just 21 wild and two captive whooping cranes by 1941, conservation efforts have led to a partial recovery. The total number of cranes in the surviving migratory population, plus three reintroduced flocks and in captivity, exceeds 800 birds as of 2020.