Dallas Zoo releases whooping crane hatched there
The Dallas Zoo’s mission includes a focus on saving whooping cranes, an endeavor it recently pushed forward by releasing into its natural habitat the first-ever whooping crane chick hatched at its Whooping Crane Center of Texas.
“This momentous achievement is a major win for whooping crane conservation and brings us one step closer to a sustainable population of these majestic birds,” the Dallas Zoo said in a statement. “Since 2018, our offsite breeding facility, the Whooping Crane Center of Texas, has been working tirelessly towards this goal.”
With the help of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries-Whooping Cranes, the Audubon Nature Institute and the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation, the Dallas Zoo released its juvenile whooping crane plus three more from the Audubon Institute on Nov. 12. Officials released the endangered species at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in Louisiana.
“With this release, the whooping crane population in Louisiana now stands at 85 cranes,” according to a statement from the Dallas Zoo. “We’re so proud to be a part of the ongoing effort to save this iconic species from extinction.”
Back in June, the zoo announced the whooping crane hatched. It received the egg from a breeding pair at the International Crane Foundation. Initially, it was placed with foster parents — Huckleberry and Juniper. At the time, the Dallas Zoo said that to “ensure successful reintroduction,” the whooping crane’s interactions with humans would be minimal, but that its team of bird zoologists would be helping.
To date, whooping cranes remain one of the rarest bird species in North America. In fact, it’s been on the endangered species list for nearly six decades. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the bird faced near extinction in the 1940s.
The whooping crane population suffered from not only habitat loss but also from being hunted for its eggs and feathers based on research from the Outdoor Illinois Journal. Reliant on wetland habitats such as marshes, they’re not easily able to adapt to human landscapes like sandhill cranes. But thanks to conservation efforts similar to that of the Dallas Zoo, the number of whooping cranes in the wild continues to rebound.
“Due to extensive conservation efforts of federal, state and private landowners, whooping crane populations have increased significantly,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement. “When the bird was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1967, only 50 of the birds existed — with 43 wintering at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and seven in captivity. The long-term annual population growth rate for whooping cranes has averaged 4.34 percent.”
The last survey from the 2021-22 winter season estimated about 543 whooping cranes, per the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They went on to say that the number indicated the population’s stability over the last two years at least.