whooping crane

noun

Updated on: 22 Apr 2018

Definition of whooping crane

: a large white nearly extinct North American crane (Grus americana) noted for its loud trumpeting call

Recent Examples of whooping crane from the Web

But the Kissimmee Prairie region of Central Florida proved to be a difficult place for whooping cranes to survive and hatch chicks.

— sara sneath, NOLA.com, "14 endangered whooping cranes may be moved from Florida to Louisiana," 15 Mar. 2018
Texas' whooping crane population largely will be insulated from President Donald Trump's proposal to ax the endangered birds' breeding program -- for now, at least.

— alex stuckey, Houston Chronicle, "Trump's budget cuts whooping crane breeding program, but Texas' population largely spared," 26 Feb. 2018
Bryce, the wayward, injured and trouble-maker of a whooping crane, died at the Louisville Zoo on Wednesday.

— james bruggers, The Courier-Journal, "Sad ending for whooping crane who was recovering at the Louisville Zoo," 21 Feb. 2018
Since then, 100 whooping cranes raised in captivity have been released in Vermillion Parish.

— sara sneath, NOLA.com, "14 endangered whooping cranes may be moved from Florida to Louisiana," 15 Mar. 2018
The eastern migratory population of whooping cranes is only around 100 birds.

— keith matheny, Detroit Free Press, "Feds: If Michigan asks us for sandhill crane hunt, we'll grant it," 1 Jan. 2018
Brulliard writes: [T]he whooping crane program's end is a profound shift at Patuxent, which does plenty of other research but none so central to its identity.

— dino grandoni, Washington Post, "The Energy 202: FERC is up and running again. That means Trump gets more of the pipelines he wants.," 19 Sep. 2017
By the time ornithologist Robert Porter Allen was born on this day in 1905, the whooping crane was already in trouble.

— kat eschner, Smithsonian, "The Hopeful Mid-Century Conservation Story of the (Still Endangered) Whooping Crane," 24 Apr. 2017
In 1941, there were a total of 16 living whooping cranes, and the species was almost wiped out.

— james griffiths, CNN, "Soon all of Hong Kong's dolphins will be dead," 21 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'whooping crane.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.