Since 2001, the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), an international coalition of public and private agencies, has been working to establish a self-sustaining migratory population of Whooping Cranes in eastern North America.
WCEP founding members are the International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration, Inc., Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team.
Whooping Cranes were on the verge of extinction due to hunting and habitat loss in the 1940s and were listed as federally endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1967. The recovery goal for this project is a self-sustaining population of at least 120 adult Whooping Cranes and 30 breeding pairs (learn more about Whooping Crane conservation). Successful establishment of this population will help meet one of the primary recovery objectives identified in the International Whooping Crane Recovery Plan.
Download the WCEP 2012 Condensed Annual Report
Download the 2011 report: The WCEP 2011 Condensed Annual Report provides summaries from the complete 144-page WCEP 2011 Annual Report.