Hanna
1977 - 2005

Hanna was one of our oldest whoopers. She and her mate, Hal, were featured in Whooper Report #30. She was a daughter of Canus. On December 6, 2005, during the routine morning check, crane technicians found Hanna hock sitting in her pen. She seemed reluctant to stand. They brought her to the vet hospital, but she died as the veterinarian examined her. A necropsy showed that Hanna had an aneurism. Her mate, Hal, seemed quiet and depressed for a week or so after Hanna's death, but he's acting more normal now. They had been a pair since 1982.

Meet the Staff:

Charles Shafer--Crane Technician

I have worked at Patuxent as a biological technician for 2 years. After graduating from Millersville University in 2001 with a BS in ecology, I took an internship at the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin. In the fall of 2003, I interned with Operation Migration to teach whooping cranes a new migration route from Wisconsin to Florida.

At Patuxent, my responsibilities include opening up unhatched crane eggs to determine if the eggs were fertile or not. If we decide the egg was fertile, we try to estimate how old the embryo was when it died. At the end of each breeding season, during the winter months, I measure the egg shell thickness of all the whooping crane eggs that were... more

WHOOPING CRANE FLOCK STATUS:  WILD POPULATION  ||   CAPTIVE POPULATIONS   ||   TOTAL

Whoopers in the News* (updated 1/12/2006):

WFAA.com, Dallas,TX --USACranes get warm welcome in S. Texas on January 15, 2006
St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, FL -- 1 whooper left at Halpata preserve on January 12, 2006
Ocala.com, Ocala, Fl -- No empty nest on January 10, 2006    MORE WHOOPERS IN THE NEWS...

*Note: these articles may only be posted for a limited time.

Online Publications:

Proceedings of the Eighth North American Crane Workshop

Cranes: Their Biology, Husbandry and Conservation Importance of Genetic Diversity in Whooping Cranes (Adobe PDF File)

See our Whooping Crane Videos!