The reward for information leading to a conviction in the fatal shooting of an endangered whooping crane in Indiana has grown to $15,000.
The Center for Biological Diversity said Tuesday it’s added $5,000 to the $10,000 reward offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the International Crane Foundation and other groups.
A 5-year-old female crane was found dead Jan. 3 near southwestern Indiana’s Goose Pond State Fish and Wildlife Area, apparently killed by a high-powered rifle.
Collette Adkins is an attorney and biologist with the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity. She calls it “a sad injustice … that someone would gun down this beautiful, endangered bird.”
Five whooping cranes have been fatally shot in Indiana since 2009, the most of any state within the cranes’ eastern migratory population.
(story from AP)