All Leftover Sandhill Crane Permits Now Issued

NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency successfully issued all 134 leftover sandhill crane permits today.  These permits were made available at 8:00 a.m. CDT today and were completely distributed three hours later. 

400 sandhill crane permits, each allowing for the harvest of a total of 3 sandhill cranes, were originally available with 266 permits being issued at the hand-held draw this past Saturday.

All sandhill crane permit holders must pass an internet-based crane identification test before hunting. The test is now available online.  All permits issued are not valid until a verifiable “Sandhill Test” validation code is written on the permit. The purpose of this test is to improve a hunter’s awareness and ability to distinguish between sandhill cranes and protected species which may be encountered while hunting.

The sandhill crane hunting season begins with the late waterfowl season on Nov. 28 and runs through Jan. 1, 2014. The zone for sandhill crane hunting is limited to southeast Tennessee, south of Interstate 40 and east of State Highway 56.