A sandhill crane that was found with an arrow right through her body was released on April 1st after making an amazing recovery.

 

The crane was spotted standing by the road near Wisconsin Rapids last September by a birdwatcher and his wife, but it was too fast to catch and got away.

 

The couple alerted police and other authorities and then a few weeks later an 11-year-old girl saw the same bird with the arrow still through it, in a stream with its mate and a young crane. The girl’s family notified bird rehabilitator Marge Gibson and wildlife rehabilitator Nicki Christianson of Wisconsin Rapids and the pair came up with a plan to capture the injured bird. At the end of September over two dozen volunteers helped to find and capture the crane and the arrow was quickly removed from it.

 

Luckily, the arrow had missed all vital organs, but the crane suffered a bad infection. However, it survived treatment and spent the winter at a rehabilitation centre while acting as a foster parent for six young injured cranes that were brought in during late fall.

 

Gibson didn’t think the bird would ever fly again, but near the end of March, the crane flew over the top of her head in a training building. She added, "It's such a heartbreaking story, and then the fact that she's going back is more than we could have ever hoped for."

 

When the bird was finally released, its mate and the young crane were still in the area, and its mate started calling her right away. Gibson explained that cranes mate for life and they wanted to release the female in the wild before the male started looking for a new mate.

 

Nobody has ever been charged with shooting the crane with the arrow even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has offered a reward. The sandhill crane is a federally protected species in the U.S.

Source: MSN News