OKLAHOMA CITY – Four hunters from southwest Oklahoma admitted unlawfully killing four endangered birds and were sentenced to pay $17,000 each – a collective total of $68,000 in restitution – to the International Crane Foundation, U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester announced.
Joseph M. Roman, 43, and Justin Matthew Wine, 40, both of Altus, along with Chanod Markell Campbell, 32, of Gould, and Brian Lee Gollihare Jr., 35, of Hollis, also were fined $750 each.
In addition, U.S. Magistrate Judge Amanda Maxfield Green ordered all four men to forfeit their shotguns, and all four are prohibited from hunting and from obtaining a hunting license in Oklahoma and all 49 other states for the next five years.
The four were charged in Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court on Aug. 22, 2023, with taking a migratory bird for which there is no hunting season.
According to federal prosecutors, the four men were hunting at Tom Steed Reservoir in Kiowa County on Nov. 5, 2021, when they killed four whooping cranes “and attempted to hide the birds before leaving the scene.”
Whooping cranes are a migratory bird and are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service says the whooping crane is one of the rarest birds in North America and was literally driven to the brink of extinction. An FWS report from May 2023 estimates there are fewer than 600 total whooping cranes in the wild.
Whooping cranes were once found over most of North America: from the Arctic to central Mexico and from the mid-Atlantic coast and New England to Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico.
But during the 19th and early 20th centuries, whooping crane habitat was lost to agriculture and drainage, and humans hunted the birds and collected their eggs – all of which contributed to the population decline.
In 1941 only 21 whooping cranes were left: 15 were migrants between Canada and Texas, while the rest lived year-round in Louisiana; lamentably, the Louisiana population went extinct. The only self-sustaining population of whooping cranes is the naturally occurring flock that breeds in Canada and winters in Texas.
Three reintroduced populations exist with the help of captive breeding programs. One of these is migratory: researchers use ultralight aircraft to teach young cranes to migrate between Wisconsin breeding grounds and Florida wintering grounds.
Whooping cranes mate for life, but they will take a new mate after the loss of the original. The pair will return to use and defend the same nesting and wintering territory year after year. Whooping cranes are known to live at least 22 years in the wild, and perhaps as long as 40 years.
“Each of us bears responsibility to protect endangered wildlife so that the species is preserved for future generation,” Troester said. “We hope this case serves as a warning for those who would harm endangered species.”
The case against the four southwest Oklahomans was investigated by the FWS Office of Law Enforcement and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
ODWC game wardens “were tireless in tracking down leads and in their collection of key evidence that led to this outcome,” said Nathan Erdman, law enforcement chief for the state Wildlife Conservation Department.
Southwest Ledger contacted the Wildlife Department and the Justice Department, seeking details about how the case was cracked after two years, but officials in both agencies declined to comment.