There are 14 known species of cranes in the world. Whooping cranes and Sand Hill cranes are the two species in North America. The Whooping Cranes are mostly white with black wing tips, black legs and a red crown. They are about 1.5 meters tall and can be taller than a person. Their wing span is up to 2.5 meters.

      Most Whooping Cranes like to eat snakes, frogs, fish, grasshoppers, mudshrimp, crayfish, acorns, and insects. Whooping Cranes lay two eggs but they push one Whooping Crane out of the nest when it's little. Some of them starve and die. That 's one reason why they're becoming extinct.

     Another reason is people wrecked their habitat by collecting their eggs. They also shoot them for their feathers. Sometimes Whooping Cranes would have collisions with power lines.

     There were only 21 Whooping Cranes in 1941. In 1967 they bred cranes in captivity and released them in to the wild. They used Sandhill Cranes as foster parents but it didn't work because the babies didn't return to where Whooping Cranes mate and couldn't breed.