Whooping cranes sighted in south-central Minnesota

Adult and chick
An adult whooping crane and its chick.
Photo courtesy of the International Crane Foundation

The Department of Natural Resources reports rare whooping cranes have been sighted in Rice and Le Sueur counties in south-central Minnesota.

DNR regional nongame wildlife specialist Lisa Gelvin-Innvaer calls the reports "exciting" since so few whooping cranes exist in the wild.

Gelvin-Innvaer says the whooping crane is a critically imperiled North American species. In 1940, there were only 16 whooping cranes left in the world. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership started a new flock in Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin and trained the birds to migrate along their normal route between Wisconsin and coastal Florida.

Gelvin-Innvaer says the pair recently sighted could be part of that flock.

Hunters are asked to be careful this fall, so they do not mistake a whooping crane for other migratory waterfowl.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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