Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Gruiformes > Gruidae > Grus > Grus americana

Grus americana (Whooping Crane)

Synonyms: Ardea americana (homotypic)
Language: Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

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.
View Wikipedia Record: Grus americana

Endangered Species

Status: Endangered
View IUCN Record: Grus americana

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
51
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 6.36206
EDGE Score: 4.07578
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

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

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Mid-Continental Canadian forests Canada Nearctic Boreal Forests/Taiga
Muskwa-Slave Lake forests Canada Nearctic Boreal Forests/Taiga
Western Gulf Coastal grasslands Mexico, United States Nearctic Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands  

Protected Areas

Important Bird Areas

Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) Sites

Name  Location   Map   Climate   Land Use 
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge United States
Whooping Crane Summer Range Canada

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

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
AZE sites provided by Alliance for Zero Extinction (2010). 2010 AZE Update.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
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