EVANGELINE PARISH, La. (KPLC) - Two crawfish farm workers could have to pay $15,000 after authorities said they shot and killed an endangered whooping crane.
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists noticed that a whooping crane’s tracker had stopped sending data on Feb. 28, according to LDWF agents. The crane was last tracked in a crawfish pond in Evangeline Parish.
Agents visited the pond on March 3 and found the dead crane, which had been shot with a small-caliber rifle. They questioned two workers who had been at the pond on Feb. 28: Logan Q. Thrasher, 36, of St. Landry, and Manuel Luis, 33, of Zacapu Michocan, Mexico.
Thrasher and Luis told agents that they were driving on Millers Lake Road when they pulled over and fired three shots at a large flock of birds in the crawfish pond, agents said. Agents seized the .17 caliber rifle.