Here's an adventure story with a deadly twist. There are about 570 whooping cranes left in the world. A group of five recently were sent out on migration, to learn from older cranes and find suitable winter habitat in the U.S. That was, until three of the five were downed by gunshots, and discovered near Albany, Georgia. This mystery has a $12,500 reward attached to solving it.
According to The Tennessean, this was the first migration south for the five birds, who were banded and equipped with transmitters as part of the 2010 Direct Autumn Release program.
The cranes were part of a Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership effort to reintroduce whooping cranes into the eastern U.S., say officials with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who are offering the reward with partners including the Humane Society of the United States. The $12,500 is for information leading to an arrest and successful prosecution of the crane killer(s).
Of an estimated 570 whooping cranes left in the world, 400 of those are in the wild. About 100 cranes are in the eastern migratory population.
The dead cranes were shot sometime before Dec. 30, 2010. They were discovered and reported by hunters. They had last been tracked in Hamilton County, Tennessee, where they roosted on Dec. 10, 2010, with three other whooping cranes.
Whooping cranes are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and state laws. The investigation includes conservation rangers from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
To give you an idea of how endangered these birds are: Each fall in recent years, pilots from Operation Migration, part of an international coalition of public and private groups, have lead a new generation of whooping cranes behind their ultralight aircraft to wintering grounds in Florida. The three downed birds weren't part of that ultralight effort.
Photo Credit: WCEP, via bringbackthecranes.org.
But if you have information on the downed birds, see the USFWS site. You can find out more about whooping crane recovery efforts at bringbackthecranes.org.
The whooping crane is the tallest bird in North America (5 feet with a 7-8 foot wingspan). The species was at the brink of extinction in the 1940s. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the endangered birds have been shot at and killed during their recovery. More awareness can't hurt this case.
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