The 2015/2016 winter Whooping Crane Abundance Survey was conducted at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, (ANWR) from December 7th through December. It will take a couple of months for all the data analysis to be completed before the official estimated numbers of the whooping crane population are release.
Photo by Kevin Sims
According to Dr. Wade Harrell, U.S. Whooping Crane Recovery Coordinator, “Overall, habitat appeared to be in excellent condition compared to the past few years and we observed larger than average group sizes (>8) of whooping cranes in several of our primary survey blocks.”
During the spring/summer whooping crane survey conducted at Wood Buffalo National Park, (WBNP) officials did not observe any family groups that included 2 juveniles (i.e. commonly referred to as “twins”). Dr. Harrell reported that during the recent survey, there weren’t any family groups with “twins” observed. FOTWW hopes that next year, “twins” will be migrating from WBNP to ANWR.
To read Dr. Harrell’s summary of the recent surveys please click here.
***** FOTWW’s mission is to help preserve and protect the Aransas/Wood Buffalo
population of wild whooping cranes and their habitat. *****
Friends of the Wild Whoopers is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
