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February 2012 The Great Outdoors
Whooping crane killed
 by Jack Spaulding
Outdoors Writer
Reward offered for information in shotgun death
of endangered and protected bird
On Dec. 30, 2011, Indiana Conservation Officers were notified of a whooping crane found shot and killed in southeastern Jackson County, near Crothersville.
The whooping crane is a federally endangered species, and only approximately 500 exist nation-wide. Whooping cranes are North America’s largest birds, standing over 5 feet tall. Every whooping crane is banded and/or fitted with a radio transmitter. Their numbers are threatened due to habitat loss, pollution and, occasionally, poachers.
Indiana Conservation Officer Phil Nale was notified of the shooting by Dan Kaiser, a tracker and photographer with the International Whooping Crane Foundation. Kaiser located the crane, “Bird Number 605,” in the area of the Muscatatuck River basin. Using X-rays, Nale later verified the bird had suffered a fatal shotgun wound.
A monetary reward is being offered for information leading to the identification of the responsible parties. The Indiana Turn-In-a-Poacher/Polluter program has donated $2,500 which was immediately matched by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a reward fund beginning at $5,000.
“Whether the shooting was accidental or not, responsible sportsmen and women of Indiana will not tolerate the thoughtless killing of a protected species,” said Doug Featherston, a TIP board member and representative of Indiana Quail Unlimited. “The TIP Citizens Advisory Board has unanimously decided to offer a reward 10 times the normal amount to motivate citizens to come forward with any information that will lead to the quick arrest and expeditious prosecution of the perpetrator.”
The reward fund continues to grow as donations are being received or allocated by other organizations and conservation oriented groups. Anyone with information regarding the case should call Indiana Conservation Officers’ South Region Headquarters at 812-837-9536 or call the TIP Hotline at 317-TIP-IDNR. The identity of individuals reporting information in the case will be kept anonymous.
The shooting is the second whooping crane killed in Indiana in the past two years. In December 2009, a 7-year-old female from the eastern migratory population was shot and killed in western Indiana near the town of Cayuga in Vermillion County. The 2009 shooting victim known by researchers as 17-02 was one of the two parent birds in the eastern population to successfully raise a chick and lead the young bird to the wintering grounds in Florida.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wade Bennett of Cayuga, Ind., and a juvenile plead guilty in state court in Vermillion County. The juvenile’s name was not released because he was a minor at the time of the crime. In the course of the proceedings it was found the unnamed juvenile pulled the trigger, and he was charged with unlawful take of an endangered species. Bennett, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, was charged with providing false information.
Even though a confidential reward of $10,000 was paid for the information leading to the arrest in the 2009 Indiana case, the violators each only received one year of probation, were charged $550 in legal fees and court costs, and fined a mere $1 for the crime.
It has not been standard practice, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern Indiana declined to charge Bennett and the youth with federal crimes, such as violations of the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act, because a juvenile was involved in the case.
Historically across the country, the killing of whooping cranes has been dealt with more harshly by the courts.
In 2004, a poacher in Texas plead guilty to federal charges and was sentenced to six months in prison and fined more than $10,000. In Kansas in 2005, a group of seven hunters who killed two whooping cranes was fined $23,586 and spent two years on probation and 50 hours of community service.
Let’s hope information will be forthcoming on those responsible for the latest senseless killing of a whooping crane. Should the perpetrators be brought to justice, maybe this time our federal court will acknowledge the true seriousness of the case, and bring judgment more in line with the severity of the crime.
till next time,
Jack Spaulding is a state outdoors writer and a consumer of RushShelby Energy from Milroy. Readers with questions or comments can write to him in care of Electric Consumer, P.O. Box 24517, Indianapolis, IN 46224; or e-mail jackspaulding@hughes.net.
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