Distribution (click here)
Whooping cranes once ranged throughout most of North America, and wintered primarily in Louisiana. For many years, no one knew where they bred until, in 1954, a pilot sighted a pair of whooping cranes in Wood Buffalo National Park in
Northwest Territories, Canada. Today, most whoopers make a semiannual migration of 2,500 miles, nesting in Canada and
wintering in the salt flats and marshes of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. In South Dakota, whoopers sometimes can be sighted as spring and fall migrants along the Missouri River drainage and in the western part of the state.
There have been rare sightings in eastern South Dakota.
Flyways aren't just air space. They are also land and wetlands where migrating species can stop to rest, eat and continue on their way.
Nebraska and South Dakota have layover spots for the very endangered whooping crane.Whooping cranes like Blue Crabs as a diet.
