Whooping Crane Shooting Cases

by Paul J. Baicich

Birding Community E-bulletins

In separate incidents and legal cases, two men in the U.S. were recently sentenced for shooting and killing Endangered Whooping Cranes during their southward migration from the Wood Buffalo National Park population inCanada.

In Texas, a 42-year-old man shot a juvenile Whooping Crane in January after mistaking it for a Sandhill Crane. He pleaded guilty on 6 March to one count of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and was fined $5,000, ordered to make a $10,000 community service payment to the Friends of Aransas and Matagorda Island National Wildlife Refuges, and placed on probation for one year.

In South Dakota, a man was sentenced in February for shooting an adult Whooping Crane in April of last year. The 26-year-old man was ordered to pay $85,000 in restitution, placed on probation for two years, had his hunting rifle confiscated, and lost hunting rights anywhere in the U.S. for two years.