Mid-Continent and Eastern Population of sandhill cranes
Minnesota, USA, is one of few states containing portions of 2 distinct breeding populations of sandhill cranes:
- the Mid-continent Population (MCP) that breeds and migrates through northwestern Minnesota
- the Eastern Population (EP) that breeds throughout much of the rest of the state.
This distinction has particular relevance to harvest management because MCP cranes breeding in Minnesota are hunted locally whereas EP cranes are not.
Research Objectives
Prior to conducting this study, we did not know:
- The current range boundaries of the Mid-Continent and Eastern Population of sandhill cranes.
- If these populations overlapped, and if so, when and where.
Breeding Bird Atlas data courtesy of Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas (2014). Pending final review, this data must be treated as preliminary. Available at mnbba.org/cgi-bin/query.pl [17 Sep 2014]
What We Found
The distribution of MCP and EP cranes overlapped during the breeding season and cranes from both populations used some of the same staging areas in the fall:
In addition some cranes were difficult to assign to either the MCP or EP population because they used multiple flyways (see Interesting Observations on this website).
This work was published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin:
Wolfson, D., J. Fieberg, J. Lawrence, T. Cooper, D.E. Andersen. 2017. Range Overlap between Mid-Continent and Eastern Sandhill Cranes revealed by GPS-tracking. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 41(3):489-498. DOI: 10.1002/wsb.799.