SOUTH – LIE – EXPLOIT – ULTIMACY – ORNAMENT

HILL – MIGRATE – FRONT – CONSERVE - ORIGINATE

The whooping crane is a grand, (1) _____ waterfowl native only to North America. Its features are
striking, as a mature whooping crane is all white and stands five feet tall with a wingspan of about eight
feet. Previously, wild flocks spent the warmer parts of the year in their native habitat of northern
Canada, and, around August, they made the 2,500-mile (2) _____ journey to the gulf coast of Texas in
the United States. Today, only one flock remains in the wild, and it consists of about one hundred and
fifty to two hundred whooping cranes. Continuing (3) _____ efforts are attempting to increase its
populations, which face, as they traditionally have, a(n) (4) _____ battle, by introducing new habitats
and educational methods of migration.

There are two major factors which (5) _____ the decline of the whooping crane in the early twentieth
century. First, they were (6) _____ hunted by people for food as well as beautiful feathers, which were
used for (7) _____ purposes. Second, their natural habitat wetlands were beginning to dry up due to
agricultural (8)_____ and development. Thirdly, which perhaps had the most dramatic effect, was the
fact that the eggs of the whooping crane were prized by collectors. Once the eggs were pillaged from
nests, future generations became placed even more in jeopardy. Fortunately, the whooping crane, like
other endangered species such as the bald eagle, (9) _____ became a protected species by federal law.
The issue of how to increase their numbers back to comfortable levels, therefore, has moved to the (10)
_____ of attention.
Migratory

Southerly

Conservationist

Uphill

Underlie

Originally

Ornamental

Exploitation

Ultimately

forefront