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The Whooping crane ranks among the rarest birds
in the world. There was a time in was once far more common throughout
the entire Midwest of North America, living in marshes of this western
zone of the continent. The population was estimated at around
1,500 in the 18th Century, but in 1941 there were only 21 birds in
the wild. Such a drastic population decrease of these Cranes is due primarily
to the loss of habitat. Since 1941 the number of birds has increased
somewhat, due to their protection, but as at the year 2005 there were still
only about 325 whooping cranes left in the wild, with a further 119 kept
in captivity.
The majority of the wild Whooping Crane population
resides in the Wood Buffalo National Park, in Canada, although they winter
about 4,000 km South, in the 115,000 acre Aransas National Wildlife Refuge,
about 35 miles North East of Rockport in Texas. Meanwhile, in Florida
a small population of Whooping cranes survive who do not migrate.
This Florida population was purposefully created to raise a separate group
of Whooping Cranes, in order to reduce the risk that a disease outbreak
or a natural catastrophe in the Canadian breeding area could result in
a complete loss of the wild population.
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