The Natural (Western) Flock's Nesting Grounds in Canada

This map of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba shows the boundary of Wood Buffalo National Park. The park covers 27,842 sqare miles! Established in 1922, it is Canada's largest national park. At that time, no one even knew it was the nesting ground for the world's only naturally occurring population of migratory Whooping cranes. The red area is the general location of the Whooping crane nesting area. The nesting area spans the Alberta/Northwest Territories border. It includes, but is not restricted to, Wood Buffalo National Park.


Try This!

  • Compare this map to one in an Atlas. Identify Canada's provinces and territories on the map. Sketch the map in your journal and use words or labels to tell where the Western flock's nesting grounds are.

  • Whooping cranes have been coming to these Canadian nesting grounds for hundreds of thousands of years. Read what a Wisconsin third grader wrote about these nesting grounds. How and when were they discovered to be the place where the only natural migratory flock of Whooping cranes lays eggs and raises chicks before their fall migration to Texas?