Posted on Thu, Nov. 11, 2004	



 
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 I M A G E S   A N D   R E L A T E D   C O N T E N T  	

 Jim Carpenter, a veterinarian at Kansas State Veterinary Medical
Teaching Hospital, holds one of the injured whooping cranes found shot
near the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Stafford County.
<http://www.kansas.com/images/kansas/kansas/10146/102943425368.jpg> 	
Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle 	
Jim Carpenter, a veterinarian at Kansas State Veterinary Medical
Teaching Hospital, holds one of the injured whooping cranes found shot
near the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Stafford County.	

 Veterinarian Jim Carpenter and student Brandy McGreer of the Kansas
State Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital use a feeding tube to nourish
an injured whooping crane Tuesday afternoon. Two cranes were brought to
the facility Saturday after being found shot in Stafford County.
<http://www.kansas.com/images/kansas/kansas/10146/102943455806.jpg> 	
Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle 	
Veterinarian Jim Carpenter and student Brandy McGreer of the Kansas
State Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital use a feeding tube to nourish
an injured whooping crane Tuesday afternoon. Two cranes were brought to
the facility Saturday after being found shot in Stafford County.	
More  <javascript:openSlideshow('/mld/' + getPublication() +
'/slideshow.htm?content_id=10146184&pub_name=' + getPublication() +
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'&start=3&component_title=&component_desc=');> photos...	

R E L A T E D    L I N K S 	
 .   <http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/10149686.htm> DISTINGUISHING
CRANES 	
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Whooping crane dies; 7 hunters admit guilt

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BY MICHAEL PEARCE
  <http://www.kansas.com/images/common/spacer.gif> 
The Wichita Eagle
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Seven Kansas hunters have admitted to last weekend's shooting of two
endangered whooping cranes in Stafford County, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service agent said Wednesday.

One of the cranes died Wednesday morning at Kansas State University's
veterinary hospital. The other is recovering from a broken wing and
several body wounds.

Special agent Kenny Kessler said Fish and Wildlife and Kansas Department
of Wildlife and Parks law enforcement officers interviewed the men
Tuesday after following leads.

Contacted individually, Kessler said all seven admitted to the shooting.
The men, all from southwest Kansas, are cooperating with the
investigation, authorities said.

Kessler said the hunters' names won't be released until after an
investigation and case review by the U.S. attorney's office in Wichita.
Charges could be filed at that time.

The penalty for unlawfully killing a whooping crane, or any endangered
species, can be a fine of up to $100,000 and as much as one year in
prison.

The men told officials they were afield for Saturday's opening of goose
and sandhill crane season and mistook the whooping cranes for sandhills
in the early morning light. Authorities said the men fired at three
whooping cranes, wounding two.

No matter the conditions, a hunter education instructor said shooting
the birds was against hunter ethics.

"We teach all the kids in hunter education that you have to identify the
target before you pull the trigger," said Jim Kellenberger, a hunter
education instructor and retired game warden. "If you can't ID
something, you just don't shoot. There's no excuse."

The hunters told law enforcement officers they thought the whooping
cranes would survive after watching them fly off and continued hunting.

Calls from landowners alerted wildlife officials at the Quivira National
Wildlife Refuge to the injured birds, which were found three miles west
of Quivira on Saturday afternoon.

The whooping cranes were transported to K-State late that night. Sunday
morning, one was operated on to set a broken wing.

Once its health is stabilized, it will probably be shipped to a captive
breeding facility in Maryland.

The other whooping crane had a leg amputated. It died early Wednesday
morning. Kessler said it will be shipped to a Fish and Wildlife lab in
Oregon for an autopsy.

Killed to near extinction for their bright white plumage, there were
less than 20 whooping cranes by 1940.

Biologists put the current number at around 230 birds, many of which
stop in central Kansas while migrating from northern Canada to the Texas
coast.

  _____  

Reach Michael Pearce at 268-6382 or