why are whooping cranes on the endangered species list?
Because they have a bad whooping cough lol
At one time, a few decades ago, there were only 21 (or 28?) of them alive. There was a significant effort to captive breed some, and save nesting areas for others. Now there are more, but their numbers are low enough that it's not a stable population yet.
Over-hunting, habitat conversion and human disturbance were the main causes of the decline. Currently, the most significant known cause of death or injury to fledglings is collision with powerlines7. Birds are depredated by Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos, especially on migration3, and drought is deteriorating breeding habitat9. Pollution, boat traffic, wave erosion and dredging threaten the Texan wintering grounds9. Aransas NWR can only support a maximum of 150 birds through the winter, forcing remaining birds to use disturbed and suboptimal habitat - this is considered to have stabilised the growth of the wild population in recent years13. The long-term effects of genetic drift after a severe population bottleneck4 are unknown. There are currently concerns about oil spills and about river flows in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge14, and the spread of West Nile virus may pose a threat to the species15.
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