Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content
  • Feedback

    • Observations of Whooping Cranes During Winter Aerial Surveys: 1950–2011 Original & Darwin Core Variant

    Metadata Updated: December 20, 2025

    The Aransas-Wood Buffalo population of whooping cranes (Grus americana) declined to near extinction by the 1940s. Starting in winter 1950–1951, annual aerial surveys were conducted to observe and record the number of whooping cranes wintering on Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and surrounding areas. This effort resulted in 38,332 observations of whooping crane groups being marked on paper maps between winter 1950–1951 and winter 2010–2011. We digitized those locations by matching the ArcMap 10 screen display as close as possible with the paper maps and approximating points in each of the marked locations. These data are freely available to the public. However, we caution that these data have quality issues and limitations due to, but not limited to, inconsistencies and lack of documentation on how data were collected, reliance on perceived knowledge of unmarked birds’ identities, and inaccuracies introduced during both recording and digitization. For more information refer to the document entitled "Observations of Whooping Cranes During Winter Aerial Surveys: 1950-2011." We request that proper credit to the compilers of this dataset is explicitly included in any work using these data. doi:10.7944/W3RP4B

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date September 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date December 20, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from DOI FWS DCAT-US

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date September 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date December 20, 2025
    Publisher U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
    Maintainer
    Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/fws-servcat-41842
    Data First Published 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Data Last Modified 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Category Tabular Dataset
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 010:18
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/fws-data.json
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id b987228e-4862-47c7-a8de-fcf7f4f48c82
    Harvest Source Id f51f1f6c-4e4a-4e0a-b4e3-a5577c6dcc19
    Harvest Source Title DOI FWS DCAT-US
    Homepage URL https://iris.fws.gov/APPS/ServCat/Reference/Profile/41842
    Program Code 010:094, 010:028
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash f085f3db992afcb48f01937c5058553e83b7666d1d6058bcd3ef9033626f49d5
    Source Schema Version 1.1

    Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.