Fla. Storms Kill Whooping Cranes

A program to reintroduce migratory whooping cranes to the eastern United States suffered a major blow when the Florida storms killed of the 17 birds.

Eighteen birds were guided south from Wisconsin to Florida in the fall, and were spending the winter in an enclosure at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

At least 17 died. One may still be alive.

A series of thunderstorms and tornados hit central Florida Friday, killing at least 20 people.

This is such a heartbreak … such a loss, said Liz Condie of Operation Migration and the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. The news of this brought us to our knees.

In the past six years, the program has built up Wisconsin’s whooping crane population from 15 to 500. The chicks, hatched from eggs provided by zoos, are guided on their first migration from the Necedah Reservation in Wisconsin by an ultra-light aircraft.