Patty Loew:
It's been a season of setbacks for the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo. First vandalism at their headquarters and then the shooting death of a prized whooping crane during migration. It’s now estimate that there are only 360 wild cranes in the entire world, a few dozen of them calling Wisconsin home. For the past decade "In Wisconsin" has chronicled the comeback of whopping cranes in our state. Here is a look back at their future in Wisconsin.

Jo Garrett:
In a farmer’s field in southern Wisconsin on a day in June. Witness something remarkable. A return. A return of the whooping crane to Wisconsin.

Woman:
The whooping crane is one of the rarest birds in the world. At one time the number was only 21 birds in the wild.

Jo Garrett:
Laura Fondow of the International Crane Foundation tracks Wisconsin's population of whooping cranes. Today in this field that's six birds out of the only 36 or so that migrate in and out of the state but call Wisconsin home. Worldwide the birds' numbers are small. There are only 400, including those in zoos. Free flying whooping cranes number less than 200. The birds themselves are massive. They are definitely not sparrow-sized.

Laura Fondow:
Whooping crane stands up to about five feet tall. It has snow white feathers and black primary wing tips and it has a black triangular mask across its face and a red patch on top of its head.

Jo Garrett:
They're distinctive. Hard to miss trucking across the landscape but not so easy to find.

Laura Fondow:
Typical migration day they can fly up to 200 miles a day depending on what kind of tailwind and thermal activity they have to soar on.

Jo Garrett:
This is how Fondow spends her days. She tracks whoopers as they fly through the skies and noting their social behavior on the ground. Take the subject of the bird's dancing. The meaning of which may be much more than social.

Laura Fondow:
They dance when they're nervous. It can dance to be aggressive, dance to relieve stress and things like that. It is depending on the context.

Jo Garrett:
The context here may be one of territory. The whoopers sight a rival. A pair of sandhill cranes, and then react to the intrusion. And dance at the conclusion. Fondow's field work is part of a reintroduction project that is years in the making and that will last many more. The project includes a flock of state and federal agencies. One of Fondow’s collaborators, Molly Mell, of the Necedah Wildlife Refuge.

Molly Mell:
Our goal is to have 125 birds migrating between Necedah Wildlife Refuge and –- National Wildlife Refuge, a flock of about 25 again, with 25 breeding pair. Of course, we'd be happier with more than that. We'll be monitoring this for at least another ten years.

Jo Garrett:
Endangered or not the cranes may be forced to confront civilization during the long migration from here to Florida or in this day's pursuit of bugs in a farmer's plowed field. But the researchers ask, if you see them, stay a distance away. Keep them wild. And enjoy their remarkable return.

Molly Mell:
How can you not be excited to see this creature we thought we were going to lose all together and now it's back and so far so good. We hope it will thrive.

Laura Fondow:
We're watching history in the making and we're part of something that is going to have a planetary impact. It's reintroducing and trying to save this species for the world.

Patty Loew:
As we mentioned earlier, a prized bird was killed during migration in December. The US Fish and Wildlife service and three other groups are now offering a $10,000 reward for information about who shot and killed the rare bird. The female whooping crane seen in this video was found dead in west central Indiana. It is an endangered species with this particular female bird being called likely the most important bird in the entire eastern migratory population. Here is why. The 7-year-old crane identified by a leg band was the only female to have hatched and raised a wild whooping crane chick. She learned to migrate behind ultralight planes but her chick migrated following its parents. The crane shot was among 19 whooping cranes migrating from summer grounds near Necedah, Wisconsin to their wintering grounds in Florida.