Number of Whooping Crane shooting related deaths rise – public fears are not “overstated”

Recently, the Tennessee Wildlife Federation (TWF) sent out a call for comment on the proposed TN Sandhill Crane season quoting a seemingly low number of Whooping Crane (WHCR) shooting deaths (3) between 1961 and the present.  It also listed public concern over the potential impact on the WHCRs from a hunting season as being “overstated.”  To read entire TWF letter click here.

The low number of deaths quoted by Michael Butler (CEO of the TWF) was taken from the February 19, 2013 report by by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP) –the partnership responsible for the reintroduction program of the eastern population of WHCRs and neutral on the issue of hunting. (…”Since 1955, three whooping cranes in the Aransas-Wood Buffalo population (AWBP) that migrates from northern Canada to coastal Texas are known to have been killed by waterfowl hunters engaged in legal hunting activities.…”)  

What isn’t mentioned in the  Tennessee Wildlife Federation letter is the fact that many more WHCRs have been killed by unethical and illegal hunting activities in the last several years (to read news reports see links below). And, according to the official WCEP report, as Sandhill hunting seasons are considered and implemented (KY is currently the only eastern state with a season) along the eastern Sandhill/Whooping crane migration route it is not an unrealistic expectation to see a rise in the occurrence of accidental WHCR shooting deaths. Hopefully, through increased public outreach and hunter education across the country, Whooping Crane deaths can be minimized.

The following are excerpts from the February 2013 WCEP report:

“…Accidental or intentional shooting is a known cause of mortality in whooping cranes. The EMP whooping cranes follow a similar migration route as the eastern population of sandhill cranes to their wintering areas in Southeastern U.S. Also similar to sandhill cranes, some whooping cranes are increasingly wintering in other Southeastern and lower Midwestern states as far north as Indiana. A hunting season on eastern sandhill cranes or other sympatric species that can be mistaken for whooping cranes could result in accidental shooting of EMP birds during the course of legal hunting activities.…”

“…The primary known cause of all mortalities in EMP whooping cranes is predation and relatively few shooting deaths of any kind have been documented; however, the cause of death is not known for 85-90% of missing whooping cranes that are presumed to be dead because a carcass has never being located…mortalities caused by purposeful or accidental shootings are, presumably, one of the hardest causes to identify as the perpetrators have an incentive to cover up such incidents…”

“…the absence of a sandhill crane hunting season or other hunting season of another sympatric species that is morphologically similar to whooping cranes in the EMP range does not guarantee that shootings of whooping cranes will not occur. Nonetheless, the potential for accidental take of whooping cranes theoretically increases as hunting seasons on other similar and sympatric species expand geographically and temporally.…” 

To read the entire WCEP report click here Whooping Crane and Shooting Related Mortalities

Federal protection under the Endangered Species Act

Crane-recovery experts note that Whooping Cranes of the wild Aransas-Wood Buffalo population (migrating between coastal Texas and northern Canada) are more fully protected under the Endangered Species Act than the reintroduced and therefore “nonessential experimental population” birds in the eastern migratory population.

A result of this designation by the USFWS is that Endangered Species Act penalties do not apply if a Whooping Crane is shot accidentally in the course of an otherwise legal activity, such as hunting.  However, a shooter may still be prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and state laws.

In an intentional shooting of a reintroduced crane, the protections of the Endangered Species Act would apply.

Dead Whooping Crane in Calhoun Co. GA, December 2010

Media Reports of Whooping Cranes deaths

…”Records of Whooping Cranes known to have died from gunshot or other causes from colonial times to 1948 show that about 66% of the losses occurred during migration. Shooting represented a substantial drain on the population, particularly from 1870 to 1920. Large and conspicuous, Whooping Cranes were shot for both meat and sport. Laws enacted to protect the birds have led to a decline in human caused mortality, but shootings still occur. The most recent known cases involved an adult female being mistaken for a snow goose near Aransas NWR in 1989, an adult female shot by a vandal as she migrated northward through Texas in 1991, and two shot by a vandal in Florida in 1990.…” (Page 5, Whooping Crane publication, 2 June 1970)
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0013_whooping_crane.pdf