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  Profile

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  In flight

Ghosts of the Past

Whooping Crane

Grus americana

• mythic
• 56 km/h
• Endangered

Once down to 21 birds, now slowly recovering. Every message carries the weight of survival.

Population

~830 total individuals as of 2025 (~560 in the migratory Wood Buffalo–Aransas flock, ~140 in reintroduced populations, ~130 in captivity); IUCN/BirdLife's 2020 global assessment (still the current/latest assessment) formally cites 50–249 mature individuals with an increasing trend (~4.2%/yr over 20 years, up from a low of 15 adults in 1938)

Habitat

Prairie wetlands, shallow lakes/ponds, willow marshes and mudflats for breeding; coastal brackish wetlands for wintering

Fun fact

The Whooping Crane's windpipe is roughly 1.5 m long and coils into its sternum like a trumpet, letting its whooping call carry for miles across marshland.

Range

Breeds in Wood Buffalo National Park (Northwest Territories/Alberta, Canada); winters at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and nearby Texas coast; migrates through the Great Plains (e.g. Nebraska's Platte River); smaller reintroduced non-migratory/migratory populations in Wisconsin-Florida and Louisiana

Diet

Omnivorous, more carnivorous than most cranes: crustaceans, mollusks, fish, small reptiles, rodents/voles, frogs, insects (e.g. grasshoppers), plus aquatic plants, acorns, berries and waste grain

Size

1.4 m

Wingspan

2.13 m

Lifespan

30 years