Rare endangered whooping crane safely relocated after being found in Wilmette
Hillary Thompson, in a crane costume, rescues a rare, endangered whooping crane from a Wilmette neighborhood on Tuesday.
Scott Judd/Provided
One of the rarest birds in North America made an unexpected stop in Wilmette this week.
A nearly 1-year-old whooping crane making her first migration north to Wisconsin lost track of her four companions and suddenly found herself wandering a neighborhood in the northern suburb Tuesday morning.
Luckily for her, a local birder spotted the whooping crane and alerted the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
The whooping crane, named Animal, also known as 16-23, was raised by the International Crane Foundation and released into the wild last year as part of a project to reintroduce more of the endangered species into the wild. "Animal" is part of a small flock of whooping cranes that migrates between Wisconsin and Florida.
“It’s not unusual for them to be seen (in the Chicago area) in migration, but to be seen in somebody’s yard in suburban Chicagoland — that’s weird,” said Anne Lacy, the International Crane Foundation’s director of Eastern Flyway Programs.
Lacy immediately sent the foundation’s whooping crane project manager, Hillary Thompson, and program fellow Alicia Ward the three-hour drive to rescue the bird while neighbors, joined by Brad Semel from the state's natural resources department, kept watch and tried to make sure the crane wasn't disturbed.
“We can’t have people walking their dogs down the street or doing lawn maintenance, because that might spook the bird,” Lacy said.
Once they arrived, Thompson donned a “crane costume” — resembling a white hazmat suit — and placed a puppet crane in her sleeve to give the whooping crane something to recognize.
“They are raised by people in costume ... to hide the human form so they don’t imprint on people,” Lacy said. “And they use the puppet to pick up food items.”
Thompson, with a bag of green grapes, picked them up with the puppet bird and “very calmly” stood around until the whooping crane recognized the crane costume.
“She recognized it, and she was lost, hungry, thirsty and under duress, she was like OK, I don’t know who you are but I recognize you and I think you can help me,” Lacy said.
Thompson slowly offered the whooping crane some grapes as she sidled up next to her and “very carefully” put her arm around the bird to secure its wings. She was then able to lean over, pick the bird up and hold it in her arms while Ward placed a hood over the bird’s head to keep her calm and less likely to flail around.
The whooping crane was immediately assessed by veterinarians and appeared to be in good health.
“She was probably a little dehydrated, but other than that she was good,” Lacy said.
All told, the rescue was completed about 10 minutes after the crane foundation arrived. From there, the bird was driven to the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in Mayville, Wisconsin, and released before sunset.
"We appreciate local residents and the Chicago birding community for alerting the Foundation of the bird’s location," the International Crane Foundation wrote in a post on Instagram. "It takes a village."
Lacy said there are about 75 whooping cranes in the eastern migratory population, which is raised in Wisconsin. Estimates say only 831 whooping cranes are alive worldwide.
“This is kind of a blip in a 20-year project to create a sustainable population of whooping cranes," Lacy said. It may seem like "we were able to ... just kind of waltz right in and load her up in the car and take her back, but it’s so much more complicated."
She credited the crane foundation’s outreach program for enabling Chicago-area birders to quickly recognize the whooping crane roaming the neighborhood and notify the foundation.
“That awareness is really what allowed us to go in and do our specialty in donning a costume and holding a crane, and getting her back into Wisconsin,” Lacy said.
The American Bird Conservancy says the whooping crane, with poplulation of 650 in 2022, is the second-rarest bird in North America, behind the California Condor.
When full grown, a whooping crane is nearly 5 feet tall, with a wingspan of 7 to 8 feet, weighing 13 to 17 pounds.