Hunting pressure on sandhill cranes bears watchfulness

  • PRESSURE BEARS WATCHING--Sandhill cranes are a familiar feature of fall and winter days in the Panhandle and South Plains, their trilling bugling equated by the great naturalist Alldo Leopold to 'the trumpet call of evolution.' A challenging but rewarding bird to hunt over decoys, their harvest is being watched closely by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
    PRESSURE BEARS WATCHING--Sandhill cranes are a familiar feature of fall and winter days in the Panhandle and South Plains, their trilling bugling equated by the great naturalist Alldo Leopold to 'the trumpet call of evolution.' A challenging but rewarding bird to hunt over decoys, their harvest is being watched closely by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

    Years ago, very few people hunted sandhill cranes in the Panhandle and South Plains. That has changed dramatically in the last 10-15 years as the sportiness of hunting them over decoys and their culinary quality has been recognized.

    Commercial crane outfitters sprang up all over the High and South Plains, transforming a once considered nuisance bird into a cash cow on the wing. With that influx of …