Whooping Crane (CBF)
Explore the Whooping Crane's migratory corridor and how it has changed over time
Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) are North America's tallest bird. In the 1940s, land change and hunting depleted the population to fewer than 20 individuals. Conservation efforts to support the final wild population and new captive populations were initially unsuccessful as little was known about the bird's reproductive habits. In 1954, the location of the wild cranes' breeding ground in Wood Buffalo National Park, NWT, Canada was identified and researchers realized that crane pairs have elaborate dances and calls as part of the breeding process. Additionally, usually two eggs are laid, but only one chick survives. With this new information, captive breeders began removing one egg from each wild clutch to allow the other one a better chance at survival, and to provide an egg for captive breeding efforts. Then, breeders started using crane costumes to mimic male crane behaviours when necessary and to train chicks to "imprint" on the correct species (when previously they became attached to humans or foster Sandhill Crane parents). These captive birds have been used to try and reintroduce populations to the cranes' previous range, but there is still only one self-sustaining migratory population: the Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP), NWT to Aransas National Wildlife Reserve (NWR), TX population - meaning the population exists as it would have pre-conservation with no birds introduced from captive populations and researchers no longer going in to take eggs. By 2007, there were 266 birds in the wild population, and by 2020 there were 506.
Conservation and breeding programs have brought Whooping Cranes back, but they are still Endangered globally according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Join them on their flight south for the winter and see what human development along their migratory corridor has done to change their habitat.
ID Guide for Whooping Crane adults and juveniles (colts)
Corridor Tour
01 / 07
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Follow the Whooping Crane on their migration across North America
Surface and aerial photos by Roberta Bondar, space images courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center.
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Wood Buffalo National Park, NWT
The only self sustaining population of Whooping Cranes spends their summers breeding and raising young in WBNP along the Alberta/Northwest Territories border in Canada.
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Marcelin and Blaine Lake, SK
As the Cranes start their migration south, they stop around the Saskatoon area in Saskatchewan to rest and feed. They can stay here up to 6 weeks to prepare the juveniles for their first migration.
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Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, KS
In the Great Plains there is a lot of agricultural development, but small pockets of protected land like National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) provide resting places for the cranes (SDG 15).
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Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, OK
Another important rest stop for the Cranes is this larger refuge in Oklahoma. At this point they are 3/4 of the way to their wintering grounds!
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Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, TX
Finally, the Cranes have made it to the Texas coast to rest and feed for the winter season! Here they may be joined by Sprague's Pipits...
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"Whoopers"
There are attempts to create other self-sustaining Whooping Crane populations out of Florida and Louisiana, but for now this Canadian/American flyway and its 500+ migratory individuals are this species best hope!
Can you spot any additional ID traits in this image that weren't visible on the ID guide?
Habitat Context Map
Explore the pop-up photos below to visualize the Whooping Crane's habitat and diet along their migratory corridor.
Hover your cursor over the cameras and click read more to learn about each photo!
Land Cover Change 1700-1990
Despite the near extinction of Whooping Cranes, this migratory corridor has been used for as long as humans have followed their journeys. However, as European settlers arrived and developed North America for intensive agriculture and urban living, they prompted the Whooping Cranes to move their breeding areas north - they used to nest in the Prairies! Can you spot the differences between the maps before looking at the text to the right?
1700: pre-colonization the Cranes flew over wild forests and grasslands.
They may have bred in Wood Buffalo NP (at the top of this corridor) then as well, but definitely in the grasslands of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and northern Great Plains states like North and South Dakota.
1900: post-Industrial Revolution and European settlement, cultivated and pasture lands spread through North America.
1990: by the end of the 20th century over 60% of the Whooping Crane corridor has become developed to some degree by humans.
Notice how all of the previous breeding habitat has been changed to some degree.
Urban Growth 1992-2018
Indigenous Peoples across North America have co-existed with Whooping Cranes for at least 30,000 years. Cranes were hunted for subsistence, and feathers and bones used for ornaments and tools, but the populations were healthy until the arrival of Europeans. At this point, new settlers were hunting beyond what was sustainable, and converting Whooping Crane habitat from wetlands to agriculture and urban areas. There are now conservation efforts to protect important Whooping Crane habitat (including the summer, winter, and staging grounds in the map tour above, SDG 15), but outside the boundaries of parks and reserves, development is still occurring. Look at how much the urban areas around Aransas NWR have grown from 1992 to 2018.
1992-2018: looking specifically at the purple urban areas, expansion is clear over this 26 year period
Keeping SDGs 11 and 12 (Sustainable Cities and Communities and Responsible Consumption and Production) in mind, can you think of ways that cities could grow with less impact on wildlife?
The Whooping Crane population has resurged, thanks to conservation efforts including: establishment of federal legislation and international agreements to protect and recover endangered species (e.g. the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Species at Risk Act); captive breeding and release programs; and the reintroduction of flocks.
Now, the recovery and survival of the endangered Whooping Crane depends on conserving the integrity of the wetland habitats found at its breeding, staging/ migratory stopover, and wintering sites, all of which are highlighted in the Space for Birds project.
