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Land use changes and hunting pressure pushed these migratory birds to the brink of extinction. Today, researchers are working to determine how environmental drivers and human influences are impacting the wintering home of the endangered whooping crane.

In 1941, only 15 wild, migratory whooping cranes in North America were known to science. These birds once had a population that was believed to be close to 20,000, but hunting and loss of habitat caused a devastating decline. The U.S. and Canada launched conservation efforts, and as a result, the population had increased to roughly 279 by 2011, with the current population thought to be approximately 500 individuals. Despite their modest comeback, whooping cranes and their coastal habitats remain threatened by a wide range of natural and human-induced influences, including drought and sea-level rise caused by climate change, variable freshwater inflows, and urban expansion.

To understand the population dynamics of the whooping crane and to help protect them, you will assist researchers in exploring the complex coastal salt marsh ecosystems along the Texas Gulf Coast to study how variable hydrology and other environmental changes affect this endangered species. You will closely monitor the birds—recording their locations, behavior, access to food, defense of coastal territories, and the frequency with which they leave their territory. You’ll share the marsh with the cranes, listening to their famous whooping calls as you conduct abundance surveys of their favorite food resources, crabs and wolfberries, in coastal wetlands.

The whooping crane has become one of the most well-known endangered species in North America—a symbol of human interference with nature. Bringing back these cranes from the brink of extinction would not only be a major conservation success story, but it could also provide inspiring lessons for protecting other endangered species around the world.