Fon du Lac, WI –– One of North America’s best-known endangered species, the Whooping Crane, saw its numbers dwindle to just 15 birds in the early 1940s. Today the population has grown to nearly 500 birds but still faces threats from oil and chemical spills, power lines, disease, and loss of wetland habitat.

According to Ducks Unlimited Regional Biologist, John Coluccy, “Wetlands provide essential breeding habitat for Whooping Cranes where they nest and raise their young. In addition, wetlands also provide critical rest stops where birds refuel along the long migration route between breeding and wintering areas.” As new flocks are introduced, they will use wetlands as lifelines during their long trek through the flyway.

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership is establishing a new flock of Whooping Cranes in eastern North America. The flock is expected to nest in central Wisconsin and winter along Florida’s west coast. New Whooping Crane chicks are released each year at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. Once old enough, the birds are taught a migration route that covers 1,200 miles, leading them from Wisconsin to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

Ducks Unlimited is working hard to restore and protect wetland habitat from Wisconsin to Florida for the benefit of waterfowl and a variety of other wetland dependent wildlife, including the Whooping Crane. For example, Ducks Unlimited, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, and Friends of Necedah National Wildlife Refuge recently cooperated to restore 300 acres of sedge meadow on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, which will provide critical breeding habitat for Whooping Cranes. Migrating whoopers have also been observed on Ducks Unlimited partnership projects at Uihlein Waterfowl Production Area and Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin and Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area and Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge in Indiana.

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands ­- nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.

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