Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Gruiformes > Gruidae > Grus > Grus americanaGrus americana (Whooping Crane)Synonyms: Ardea americana (homotypic) Language: Spanish The whooping crane (Grus americana), the tallest North American bird, is an endangered crane species named for its whooping sound. In 2003, there were about 153 pairs of whooping cranes. Along with the sandhill crane, it is one of only two crane species found in North America. The whooping crane's lifespan is estimated to be 22 to 24 years in the wild. After being pushed to the brink of extinction by unregulated hunting and loss of habitat to just 21 wild and two captive whooping cranes by 1941, conservation efforts have led to a limited recovery. As of February 2015, the total population was 603 including 161 captive birds. |
Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) Unique (100) Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) Unique & Vulnerable (100) ED Score: 6.36206 EDGE Score: 4.07578 |
| Adult Weight [1] | 15.706 lbs (7.124 kg) | | Birth Weight [3] | 150 grams |  | | Breeding Habitat [2] | Boreal forests | | Wintering Geography [2] | Southeastern U.S. | | Wintering Habitat [2] | Coastal saltmarshes, Freshwater marshes | | | Diet [4] | Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore, Frugivore, Granivore | | Diet - Ectothermic [4] | 20 % | | Diet - Endothermic [4] | 20 % | | Diet - Fish [4] | 20 % | | Diet - Fruit [4] | 10 % | | Diet - Invertibrates [4] | 20 % | | Diet - Seeds [4] | 10 % | | Forages - Ground [4] | 50 % | | Forages - Water Surface [4] | 50 % | | | Clutch Size [5] | 2 | | Clutches / Year [1] | 1 | | Fledging [1] | 3 months 10 days | | Global Population (2017 est.) [2] | 280 | | Incubation [3] | 31 days | | Maximum Longevity [3] | 40 years | | Migration [6] | Intracontinental | | Wing Span [7] | 7.052 feet (2.15 m) | | | Female Maturity [3] | 4 years | | Male Maturity [3] | 4 years |
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| Name |
IUCN Category |
Area acres |
Location |
Species |
Website |
Climate |
Land Use |
|
Badlands National Park |
II |
178535 |
South Dakota, United States |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Bandelier National Monument |
V |
8107 |
New Mexico, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park |
II |
12551 |
Colorado, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Curecanti National Recreation Area |
V |
31032 |
Colorado, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Fort Pulaski National Monument |
V |
4213 |
Georgia, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Fossil Butte National Monument |
III |
8423 |
Wyoming, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Long Point Biosphere Reserve |
|
100325 |
Ontario, Canada |
|
|
|
|
|
Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve |
|
277252 |
Saskatchewan, Canada |
|
|
|
|
|
Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge |
VI |
23844 |
Oklahoma, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Sevilleta LTER Site Long Term Ecological Research |
IV |
228335 |
New Mexico, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Sirmilik National Park |
II |
5475284 |
Canada |
|
|
|
|
|
Vuntut National Park |
II |
1076795 |
Yukon, Canada |
|
|
|
|
|
Wind Cave National Park |
II |
29471 |
South Dakota, United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Wood Buffalo National Park |
II |
11038545 |
Alberta, Canada |
|
|
|
|
|
Yellowstone Biosphere Reserve |
II |
2196863 |
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, United States |
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|
| Name |
Location |
IBA Criteria |
Website |
Climate |
Land Use |
|
Buffer Lake |
Canada |
A1, A4i |
|
|
|
|
Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area and surrounding areas |
USA |
A1, A4i |
|
|
|
|
Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area |
Canada |
A1, A4i, A4iii |
|
|
|
|
Luck Lake |
Canada |
A1, A4i, A4iii |
|
|
|
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Midnight Lake |
Canada |
A1, A4i |
|
|
|
|
Quill Lakes |
Canada |
A1, A4i, A4iii |
|
|
|
|
Radisson Lake |
Canada |
A1, A4i, A4iii |
|
|
|
|
Rowe Sanctuary |
USA |
A1, A4i |
|
|
|
|
Whooping Crane Nesting Area and Summer Range |
Canada |
A1, A4i |
|
|
|
|
Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) Sites |
Habitat Vegetation Classification |
| Name |
Location |
Website |
|
Batis maritima - Sarcocornia pacifica Saline Dwarf-shrubland |
United States (Texas, Georgia, Florida) |
|
|
Great Plains Freshwater Marsh |
United States (Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska); Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) |
|
|
Seaside-tansy Tidal Shrub Flat |
United States (Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida) |
|
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 Attributes / relations provided by ♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109 ♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018. ♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774 ♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027 ♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303 ♦ 6Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org♦ 7del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database |
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0
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