More Than 1,500 Sandhill Cranes Killed by Bird Flu in Indiana, Raising Concerns Among Biologists

More than 1,500 sandhill cranes have been found dead in Indiana, placing them among the latest victims of the highly contagious bird flu strain H5N1, reports the Post-Tribune’s Amy Lavalley.

The tall, slender grey birds are in the middle of their spring migration. They’re heading north to breeding grounds in Alaska, Canada and eastern Siberia. As they make the annual journey, the birds stop to rest and refuel in various places throughout the Midwest, including Indiana.

In recent weeks, biologists with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have counted hundreds of dead sandhill cranes statewide. At least 500 of the birds were found dead in Jackson County, in the south-central part of the state, in early January.

Since then, as the birds have continued to fly northward, deaths have been reported in other parts of Indiana. And 1,500 deaths is likely an underestimate, officials say.

“This year they brought avian influenza with them and it just ripped through the population very quickly,” Eli Fleace, a biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, tells the Post-Tribune.

The birds are dying from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has been wreaking havoc on America’s poultry industry and, in turn, driving egg prices to rise. The deadly pathogen has also been wiping out wild birds, including more than 5,000 snow geese in eastern Pennsylvania in January.

Wild birds—especially those that migrate in large flocks—are particularly susceptible to the highly contagious strain. Biologists are hopeful the deaths will slow this spring, since the virus tends to peak during the fall and winter.

“Humans really can’t do much in a single season,” Fleace tells the Post-Tribune. “You can’t ask [the birds] to isolate from each other.”

Meanwhile, volunteers in northwest Indiana are doing what they can to help stop the spread. Donning masks and gloves, they’re gathering as many sandhill crane carcasses as they can from frozen lakes and shorelines. Acting on the advice of biologists, they’re double-bagging the carcasses in trash bags and disposing of them in a rented dumpster; they’re also sanitizing any equipment they use to pick up the bodies.

“I decided someone’s got to do something about it and pick up these birds,” says Sean Leone, a resident of Upper Fish Lake in northwest Indiana, to WSBT’s Cicily Porter. “So, I started getting volunteers together and asking people if they’d like to donate bags or gloves or whatever to help, you know, bring you into the community and everybody helps chip in and do their part.”

An estimated 650,000 sandhill cranes live in North America, and their population is increasing, according to the American Bird Conservancy. But their close relatives, whooping cranes, are much less abundant: Around 800 of those endangered birds are still in existence.

Whooping cranes often share habitats with sandhill cranes, as well as other waterfowl. Experts are concerned about the spread of H5N1 between the different species.

“If [the virus] gets into a small number of [whooping cranes], that’s a large percentage of the population,” says Diana Boon, director of conservation medicine for the International Crane Foundation, to USA Today’s Trevor Hughes and Dinah Voyles Pulver.

Biologists in central Nebraska are also following the recent sandhill crane deaths closely. Hundreds of thousands of the birds—roughly 80 percent of the total population—spend several weeks resting and fattening up near the Platte River in February, March and April. So far, no sick or dead cranes have been reported in Nebraska.

“We’re preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best,” says Bethany Ostrom, a biologist with the nonprofit Crane Trust in Wood River, Nebraska, to KETV’s Andrew Ozaki. “The cranes aren’t magically, like, immune to this. And so that’s pretty concerning with how big of congregations we get here.”

Wildlife biologists across the country are asking members of the public to report any sick or dead animals. The overall risk of infection is low for humans, but 70 people in the U.S. have contracted the virus since 2022. In January, the country reported its first human death from H5N1 bird flu.