A few facts about sandhill cranes:
-- Sandhill cranes can live to be 20 years old and don't reach breeding maturity until about age 4.
-- Few sandhill cranes breed in North Dakota, although a birdwatcher near Granville, N.D., reportedly observed a pair of sandhills with two young this past spring.
-- The last confirmed breeding in North Dakota occurred in the early '90s at J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge.
-- There are six recognized subspecies of
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sandhill cranes, including three - the lesser, Canadian and greater sandhills - that pass through North Dakota. Other subspecies are the Florida, Mississippi and Cuban sandhill cranes.
-- Sandhill cranes also are abundant in northwestern Minnesota, where they can't be hunted. Research has shown the birds in northwestern Minnesota are part of the same midcontinent population that passes through North Dakota. At one time, the Minnesota birds were considered part of the eastern population, which is less abundant. Sandhill cranes also breed in northwestern Minnesota.
-- Hunters need to recognize whooping cranes, an endangered species that occasionally flies with sandhill cranes. Adult whoopers, which stand 4 to 5 feet tall, are snow white, and young whooping cranes are white with some rusty brown feathers; black wing tips show on both. Sandhill cranes are gray to brown, stand 3 to 4 feet tall and have dark gray patches on the undersides of their wings.
-- The Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown, N.D., has extensive information on sandhill cranes on the Web at www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/cranes/gruscana.htm .
-- For information on North Dakota sandhill crane regulations and license requirements, check out the Game and Fish Web site at www.gf.nd.gov .
- Sources: North Dakota Game and Fish Department, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
