Page 46 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2022

SPORTS & OUTDOORS MAGNOLIA STATE
Cranes
Endangered Bird Calls South Mississippi Home
The Mississippi subspecies of sandhill crane once lived all along the northern Gulf Coast, but the few remaining
birds became so endangered that the federal government set up the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge near Gautier just for them.
“Mississippi sandhill cranes are native to Mississippi and the Gulf Coast,” explains Scott Hereford, a refuge supervisory wildlife biologist. “At one time, scattered populations lived along the Gulf Coast, but by 1960, the only population west of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia was in
Jackson County.”
Fewer than 35 Mississippi sandhill cranes
existed in 1975 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the 19,000- acre refuge for them. Biologists intensively managed the remaining population and hatched many birds in captivity. By 2013, the population grew to 25 breeding pairs.
“The Mississippi subspecies is one of the rarest bird populations in North America,” Hereford advises. “Today, there are a little more than 130 of them including more than 40 nesting pairs. All of them either live on the refuge or on
private lands within three to five miles of the refuge boundary.”
Most sandhill cranes migrate just like waterfowl. In Mississippi, people can only spot other sandhill subspecies during the winter before they return to their breeding range in the spring. However, the Mississippi variety does not migrate. People can see them all year long.
“Some migrant sandhills come to Mississippi from the Great Lakes area to winter here, but the Mississippi sandhill cranes are non-migratory,” Hereford says. “This refuge is their native habitat.
These captive-reared cranes were released in November.
The refuge offers several hiking trails where people can photograph wildlife and possibly spot cranes.
46 | March 2022 www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living