Investigation of Shooting of Whooping Crane (1 Viewer)

[spacepilot]

Just got this from my state birding listserv. I hope they will find out who killed the Whooping Crane:

Shooting of Whooping Crane #17-02, reward offered

One of only 500 Whooping Cranes in existence today, and the only successful female parent in the Whooping Crane Eastern Population, was found shot recently here in Indiana. A $2500 reward is offered for
convicting the culprit. See...

https://www.savingcranes.org/investigationofshootingof1702december92009.html

Ning

 

[LabradorDuck]

Terrible news!

I hope whoever did this gets caught and punished.

 

[lashinala]

Wow...not good. And considering how many died recently from 'water' issues, its been a rough year for them.

 

[bkrownd]

I hope whoever did this gets caught and punished.

Any substantial punishment would be highly unlikely, but some public exposure could help with public awareness that randomly shooting at animals (an accepted behavior in some areas) is officially not OK.

 

[humminbird]

Any substantial punishment would be highly unlikely,

Somebody knows the reality of prosecuting these incidents. In some states (including Texas) there is also restitution though which can be quite substantial in the case of a Whooping Crane. That never gets reported though.

Somebody mentioned the water issues last spring, this should not be an issue this year in Aransas. Last I heard, more than 240 birds had settled in at the refuge.

 

[lashinala]

BTW, this looks like a 'surgical strike' to me...could one select a worse individual to 'pick off' from the crowd. A 1 in 500 chance.....hmmm.

 

[humminbird]

500 is approximately the total world population for this bird. Most of these are in captivity for captive breeding and release. Every bird in the population is important to genetic diversity of the species at this point.

 

[lashinala]

BTW, reward is up to $7500 now. . .and may go higher soon.
Oh, and edit to add--1 in 85...still pretty low odds.