Lost Whooping Crane Rescued From Wilmette Yard, Returned To Wisconsin

WILMETTE, IL — One of the rarest and most endangered birds in North America was rescued from a Wilmette backyard after getting lost during her first migration back to Wisconsin.

The young whooping crane, known as "Animal" or 16-23, veered off course and became separated from her companions before she was spotted Tuesday in the northern suburb.

Whooping cranes have been pushed to the brink of extinction by a loss of wetland habitat and overexploitation, with their population dropping from tens of thousands to 1,400 by the Civil War and had fallen to an all-time low of just 15 birds in 1938.

In 1970, the species was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Since then, recovery efforts have helped reintroduce whooping cranes into the wild. There are now nearly 700 living in the wild across North America, and nearly a quarter of those have been raised in captivity reintroduced by conservationists, according to the International Crane Foundation. Another 133 are living in captivity.

Animal, the crane who showed up in Wilmette, is one of 75 members of the eastern migratory population of reintroduced whooping cranes. She was raised by the Wisconsin-based foundation, released into the wild and had been traveling back from her winter home in Indiana.

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Whooping cranes can be identified by the red patches on their forehead and their black "mustaches."

Luckily for Animal, members of the Chicago birding community recognized her and notified the International Crane Foundation.

Foundation staff said they worked with local vet Dr. Barb Royal, of Royal Treatment Veterinary Clinic in Wilmette, and Brad Semel, a species recovery specialist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to capture and relocate the crane from such a dangerous, highly trafficked area.

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Hillary Thompson, the foundation's whooping crane project manager, put on a white "crane costume" and used a puppet shaped like the head of a whooping crane to offer green grapes to Animal.

Such costumes are aimed to prevent the birds from getting used to human figures, and used while raising chicks to make them more likely to survive independently in the wild.

Once the bird got close enough, Thompson and Crane Conservation Fellow Alicia Ward were able to hold its wings and cover its head.

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"Based on an assessment by veterinary professionals on-site, 16-23 is believed to be in good health, and the International Crane Foundation safely re-released her at Horicon Marsh in eastern Wisconsin Tuesday evening," according to foundation representatives, who said they were alerted to the bird's location by local residents and the Chicago birding community.

Anne Lacy, the foundation's director of eastern flyway programs, told the Chicago Sun-Times that educational initiatives helped birders recognize the lost crane.

“That awareness is really what allowed us to go in and do our specialty in donning a costume and holding a crane," she said, "and getting her back into Wisconsin."