Fort Smith (Sep 22/03) - A whooping crane instrumental in saving the species is bound for life after death at Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith.

The legendary whooper, known as Canus, died earlier this year in Maryland.

"We're very excited about Canus coming to our museum," says Don Jaque, the chair of Northern Life Museum's board. "It's going to be a feather in our cap to have such a whooping crane here."

Both Canada and the U.S. wanted to preserve and display the bird's body.

However, it is returning to Canada under a 1993 agreement among members of the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team that Northern Life Museum could bring Canus back to the NWT after he died.

The bird was found in Wood Buffalo National Park by the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) nearly 39 years ago.

The CWS' Brian Johns -- the Canadian whooping crane co-ordinator -- says Canus will likely be returned to Canada sometime in October.

Johns expects the whooper to be ready to stand in Northern Life Museum by the spring or summer of next year, depending on finding the right taxidermist to prepare it for display.

"For something like this, we want someone who specializes in birds," Johns says.

Where he started out

Since he died, Canus has been frozen at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland -- where he spent almost all of his life.

Johns says he shares the excitement about Canus returning to the Fort Smith area. "That's where he started out."

An unusual aspect of Canus -- 'Can' for Canada and 'us' for the United States -- was he had just one wing. The other was injured and amputated.

When he was captured, there were only about 40 whooping cranes in the wild. Canus was sent to the U.S. to launch a highly successful captive breeding program.

When he died, Canus' descendants numbered 186.