Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) enforcement agents cited a Chicago man on April 13 for allegedly shooting an endangered whooping crane in Evangeline Parish.
Agents cited Michael Alaniz, 49, of Chicago, Illinois, for violating the migratory bird treaty act.
Agents first learned about a shot whooping crane on March 19 when biologists reported a lost signal on a whooping crane’s tracking collar. The last known location of the crane was on a privately owned crawfish farm near Hwy. 106 between Bayou Chicot and Pine Prairie.
Agents were able to locate the dead crane on March 20 on this property. The crane showed pellet wounds consistent with being shot with a shotgun. On March 21, agents executed a search warrant on the property and found a spent shotgun shell casing near the recovery site.
During the investigation, Alaniz contacted agents and admitted to shooting the crane on March 17 while on the farm. His statement was consistent with information gathered during the investigation, according to agents.
Violating the migratory bird treaty act brings a $400 to $950 fine and up to 120 days in jail. Alaniz will also be assessed civil restitution up to $15,000 for the replacement value of the illegally taken whooping crane.
This is the second whooping crane that was illegally shot recently in Evangeline Parish. The first whooping crane was shot on Feb. 28 in a crawfish pond off Millers Lake Road. Agents cited Logan Q. Thrasher, 36, of St. Landry, and Manuel Luis, 33, of Zacapu, Michocan, Mexico, for state charges of violating the migratory bird treaty act on March 3.
These two illegally shot and killed whooping cranes represented 2.5 percent of the non-migratory population of whooping cranes in Louisiana, which now stands at just under 80 individuals.
Both whooping cranes were young males who had been hatched and reared in the wild. Wild hatched individuals are the ultimate goal of the whooping crane program and represent almost a year’s worth of effort for each of the whooping crane pairs that raised these birds. Losing these two whooping cranes are a serious setback to reaching a self-sustainable population in the state.
