Whooping crane “Ducky” died in Baraboo Sept. 18 at the International Crane Foundation from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, marking the world’s first fatal case of HPAI in whooping cranes.
Ducky, who the ICF expected to release into the wild later this fall, most likely received the disease from “a wild bird or through the environment,” according to the organization.
HPAI, a highly lethal disease that causes symptoms including pink eye and fever, can spread through contaminated oral and nasal secretions or feces and persist in the environment for extended periods of time.
The ICF estimates only 700 whooping cranes remain worldwide. Ducky would have joined an Eastern Migratory flock of 70 cranes, many of whom are reared and released by the ICF, that primarily nest in Wisconsin.
Whooping cranes are migratory birds that travel south in the winter, making them susceptible to disease during their journey. The majority of whooping cranes, an estimated 557 last year, winter in or around Aransas National Park in Texas.
Though whooping cranes, a bird native to North America, once numbered in the tens of thousands, overhunting and habitat destruction caused the population to drop to 15 cranes in 1941. Conservation efforts increased the population, but “illness, poaching, habitat loss [and] climate change” still remain threats, according to the ICF.
Environmentalists have been on the lookout for HPAI in whooping cranes after the virus incited a mass die-off of around 1,500 sandhill cranes in Indiana in February — the largest documented die-off of cranes from bird flu in the history of North America.
In total, the USDA has detected 14,497 cases of HPAI in U.S. wild birds since they began monitoring cases in January 2022. In that same time period, they have recorded almost 175 million cases in poultry birds.
Though hundreds of non-lethal cases of HPAI have been recorded in humans across the U.S., the CDC reports that humans face low risk from the disease.
Ducky was raised with seven other cranes that all remain asymptomatic, though the ICF reported they will continue to monitor for symptoms. As a result of Ducky’s death, the foundation increased their biosecurity protocol to “the highest level,” according to a press release.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Ducky,” Kim Boardman, Curator of Birds at the International Crane Foundation, said. “Each Whooping Crane is invaluable — not only to our organization, but to the survival of the entire species.”
