Ohio's sandhill crane population has shown positive signs of growth over the past year. The bird was previously extinct in the state for decades.
Volunteers worked with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for their fifth annual sandhill crane count. They found 428 individuals compared to last year's 412, which is a 4% increase.
The count began in 2021 and has steadily climbed from 160 birds in five counties to the current 428 across 31 total counties. According to the ODNR, counties are selected based on the availability of the wetland habitat favored by the cranes for nesting.
Sandhill cranes had previously disappeared from Ohio in the 1930s due to habitat destruction and unregulated hunting, per Central Ohio News. They're the oldest living species of bird, dating back 2.5 million years. Despite how the population has grown since their return in 1987, these birds are still considered threatened in the state.
Wildlife is crucial to a healthy and thriving ecosystem, and their return can signal the overall health of a region. Cranes need wetlands to breed, so if water has returned to a wetland, the cranes are likely to return, according to Defenders of Wildlife.
Healthy wetlands are important because of the variety of species they host. Their microbes, plants, and animals are all important, and they play a part in the water, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Wetlands also help manage flooding and improve water quality for humans and wildlife.
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"We have a lot of great habitat in Ohio, and we've done a good job in recent years with restoring more wetlands and conserving the wetlands," Will Babb, a publications editor with the ODNR's Division of Wildlife, told Central Ohio News. "It's just really good to see this crane population continuing to grow."
Conservation efforts have helped reintroduce various species around the world, including gray wolves, jaguars, and puffins, to name just a few.
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