Recovery of the whooping crane Grus americana

Officially listed as ‘endangered’, the whooping crane Grus americana currently receives strong legal protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. To remove it from endangered status, the official Whooping Crane Recovery Plan requires 40 nesting pairs in the main population which migrates from Wood Buffalo National Park, NWT, Canada to the Aransas National Wildlife refuge on the Texas gulf coast. Two demographic models of the migratory population indicate that this criterion for recovery is likely to be met within the next decade.