WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Grus americana | Whooping Crane 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
The whooping crane is found only in North America [3].  Historically its
range extended from the Arctic coast south to central Mexico and from
the Rocky Mountain region in Utah eastward to the Atlantic coast [3,10].
Only two populations exist today [11].  The only known breeding
population of whooping cranes nests in and around Wood Buffalo National
Park in the southern Northwest Territories and northern Alberta.  This
population winters along the coast of Texas near Corpus Christi on the
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Matagorda Island, Isla San Jose, and
portions of the Lamar Peninsula and Welder Point, which is on the east
side of San Antonio Bay known as Welder Point.  Some occur occasionally
on nearby farmlands [3,10].  The migration route includes much of the
Great Plains region between northern Canada and the Texas coast [3,11].
This route passes through northeastern Alberta, southwestern
Saskatchewan, northeastern Montana, western and central North and South
Dakota, central Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and east-central Texas [10].

Using greater sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis tabida) as foster
parents, a second flock was established at Grays Lake National Wildlife
Refuge in southeastern Idaho in 1975 [11].  This population summers in
the vicinity of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which includes
Yellowstone National Park; Grays Lake, Island Park, and Teton Basin in
Idaho; Upper Green River Basin in Wyoming; and the Centennial Valley in
Montana [3].  These whooping cranes winter with greater sandhill cranes
in the Rio Grande area of south-central New Mexico [7].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
FRES15 Oak-hickory
FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES37 Mountain meadows
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie
FRES41 Wet grasslands


STATES : 


    
ID
    
MT
    
NM
    
TX
    
WY






    
AB
    
NT
    
SK




BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    7  Lower Basin and Range
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   14  Great Plains
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
   K068  Wheatgrass - grama - buffalograss
   K069  Bluestem - grama prairie
   K072  Sea oats prairie
   K074  Bluestem prairie
   K075  Nebraska Sandhills prairie
   K076  Blackland prairie
   K077  Bluestem - sacahuista prairie
   K078  Southern cordgrass prairie
   K084  Cross Timbers
   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K100  Oak - hickory forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    12  Black spruce
    38  Tamarack
    40  Post oak - blackjack oak
    63  Cottonwood
    88  Willow oak - water oak - diamondleaf oak
   203  Balsam poplar
   235  Cottonwood - willow
   253  Black spruce - white spruce


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Whooping cranes' nesting grounds consist of wetland communities
dominated by bulrush (Scirpus valicus).  Cattail (Typha spp.), water
sedge (Carex aquatilis), musk-grass (Chara spp.), slim-stem reedgrass
(Calamagrostis neglecta), and spikerush (Eleocharis spp.) are also
common [7,10].  These wetlands are separated by narrow ridges which
support an overstory of black spruce (Picea mariana), tamarack (Larix
laricina), and willow (Salix spp.) and an understory of bog birch
(Betula glandulosa), Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), and bearberry
(Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) [10].

The salt flats of their wintering grounds are dominated by coastal
saltgrass (Distichlis spicata var. spicata), saltwort (Batis maritima),
smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), glasswort (Salicornia spp.),
bushy sea-oxeye (Borrichia flutescens), and gulf cordgrass (S.
spartinae) [7,10].  The upland portion of the wintering grounds is
predominately live oak (Quercus virginiana) and redbay (Persea borbonia)
[10].


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Grus americana | Whooping Crane