Watching Out for Humans
Avoiding people was a critical lesson lesson for the young cranes of the eastern flock to learn. Discover why people remain perilous to the reintroduction effort.

Adult female #4-11 (with her chick W7-16) was one of several shotgun fatalities.
Brooke Pennypacker

Rules
Watching out for humans was a critical lesson for the young Whooping Cranes of the eastern flock to learn. The team made rules to ensure the young cranes never imprinted on humans (they used crane puppets), never saw the human form (they wore the white costumes), never heard a human voice or cough or sneeze (they kept strict silence). All stopover sites used along the migration were screened to keep people and their traffic and pets out of the birds' range of vision. Still, humans remain dangerous to Whooping Cranes.

Shotgun Deaths
Sadly, shootings account for roughly 20 percent of known adult Whooping Crane deaths in the reintroduced flock in the eastern states. While a few of these were mistaken for legally hunted birds, it appears that vandalism is the root of most of the shootings. This is especially alarming because of the slow rate of growth of the Whooping Crane population. At this writing, the most recent shooting was Crane#4-11, killed in Greene County, Indiana in early January, 2017. You see her above with the chick she raised to fledging all by herself — a rare achievement in this flock — when her mate died shortly after the chick hatched. She was the fifth Whooping Crane to be shot in Indiana, a state on the migratory pathway.

Not Just Shootings
Where humans go, so do their cell towers, electrical power lines, automobiles, demands for fresh water and land on which to live. All of these can and do impact the survival of Whooping Cranes on their breeding grounds, on their wintering grounds, and all along their migration routes. Also, cranes getting used to human presence is dangerous to both the birds and the people. At this writing, three Whooping Cranes that made the mistake of hanging around humans were taken back into captivity for everyone's safety.

Keeping Cranes Safe
The International Crane Foundation (ICF) and other WCEP partners want to reduce human-caused Whooping Crane deaths. ICF's Keeping Whooping Cranes Safe project strives to create communities that care about the cranes, especially in areas where Whooping Cranes are most at risk. Efforts began near Wheeler NWR in Alabama, where more than one-third of the eastern migrating Whooping Crane population spends part of their winter. Two of the documented Whooping Crane shootings over the last few years have happened in this area. Billboards, radio and television announcements, teacher workshops and hunter education materials can help people become aware of these endangered birds. Everyone can learn how and why to protect them, and take pride that these rare birds choose to spend part of their year in their state — whether on summer nesting grounds, wintering feeding grounds, or the migration route connecting them. The project also seeks to increase negative consequences for harming Whooping Cranes.

“Reintroducing an endangered species takes money, hard work, luck and expertise," Operation Migration CEO Joe Duff reminds us. All of us can help keep cranes safe by learning more about Whooping Cranes and how to identify them—while keeping our distance.

By Jane Duden
February, 2017

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