The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Winter Whooping Crane Survey estimates there are a total of 279 whooping cranes, including 257 found within the primary wintering grounds and 22 beyond that area. During December, Service personnel conducted seven surveys of the primary wintering grounds of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock, the last remaining wild flock of whooping cranes. With the help of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Texas Whooper Watch and other observers, documented sightings during that same time frame suggest there were at least 22 additional whooping cranes found outside the primary wintering grounds.

Last year, the survey estimated a total of 267 whooping cranes in the wild, including 254 on the primary wintering grounds and 13 beyond. For more information on the survey, visit http://www.fws.gov/nwrs/threecolumn.aspx?id=2147512080.

All of the whooping cranes alive today, both wild and captive, are descendants of the last 15 remaining cranes found wintering at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in 1941.