From Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
A new and unique hunting opportunity will be available for Alabama residents beginning in the 2019-20 season. Alabama will join Tennessee and Kentucky, to be the third state east of the Mississippi River to reopen a sandhill crane hunting season. Hunting will be by limited quota draw permit only, and 400 individual hunters will be drawn to participate.
Sandhill cranes were a species once hunted to near extinction, but laws were passed protecting these migratory birds and their wetland habitats. Hunting for sandhill crane in the United States was closed in 1916. Since then populations began rebounding and more recently their range has been expanding.
The Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division began conducting crane counts in 2010 as part of their annual aerial waterfowl surveys. Sandhill crane numbers in Alabama have increased an average of 16% per year over the past 10 years, with the latest 5-year average of 15,029 birds.
Information regarding sandhill crane hunts and the registration process will be provided through our website www.outdooralabama.com in the coming months.
Sandhill Crane photo courtesy of USFWS