Skip to content

Whooping cranes had banner year

The NWT’s summer population of whooping cranes is booming.

photo courtesy of Parks Canada
Whooping cranes stand among the trees of Wood Buffalo National Park.

“There were three times as many chicks hatched this year as there were whooping cranes in existence in 1941,” says Rhona Kindopp, acting resource conservation manager with Parks Canada. Sixty-three were born this year.

Whooping cranes nest in Wood Buffalo National Park every year around May, and this year, there were 98 nesting pairs—a record number, says Kindopp. The total population of the flock is 430 cranes.

“While that’s still a low number, it is an amazing comeback from their near extinction last century,” says Kindopp.

This rebound is believed to be caused by an influx of juvenile cranes that were born in 2010. Cranes enter the breeding population at between three and five years old.

“Additionally, the conditions were really excellent this year in the nesting area, with high water levels, which caused there to be more breeding habitat,” says Kindopp. “It’s easier for the cranes to find territory to build their nests.”

Every year, the cranes make the 4,000-kilometre journey north from their wintering ground in Texas, near Aransas and San Antonio Bay. This summer, Hurricane Harvey tore through the area, threatening the cranes’ wintering grounds.

Kindopp says her department confers regularly over email with their colleagues in Texas, and it looks as if the wintering grounds were largely unharmed.

“The main concern related to hurricanes in the whooping cranes wintering habitat is saltwater overflowing into the freshwater ponds in that area, during and after a hurricane,” says Kindopp, “So the high levels of salinity that that causes can reduce the whooping cranes’ food source (which is, primarily, wolfberries and blue crabs).”

When this happens, officials in Texas will often pump freshwater back into the ponds to restore the right balance of salinity.

Those wishing to view the cranes at Wood Buffalo need to hope for a bit of luck, as the birds nest deep within the park, but Kindopp says the boom in population is also resulting in higher frequency of sightings.

There is one couple that’s nested at the park’s salt plains for the past three years, and visitors have been able to view them from afar through binoculars, or catch sight of them flying overhead.