Cranes undertake some of the most spectacular migrations in the animal kingdom, but face welfare threats from hunting, power line collisions, and wetland loss along their migration corridors.
Individual cranes face welfare threats at multiple points in their annual cycle. Power line collisions cause traumatic injuries - broken wings, internal hemorrhage - that may result in prolonged dying or permanent disability. Hunting-injured cranes may survive with debilitating wounds. The loss of traditional staging wetlands forces cranes into suboptimal habitats that may not provide adequate food before continuing migration, causing nutritional stress. Pair bond disruption from the death of one partner affects the surviving crane's breeding success and behavioral patterns for subsequent years.