PINE PRAIRIE — A Chicago man was arrested for allegedly killing an endangered whooping crane in Evangeline Parish, the second crane killed there in recent months. 

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said that on March 19, biologists reported a lost signal on a whooping crane's tracking collar.

They went to the crane's last known location, a crawfish farm along Highway 106 between Bayou Chicot and Pine Prairie, where they found its body with shotgun wounds. While executing a search warrant, agents found a spent shotgun shell casing at the farm. 

LDWF said that during its investigation, Michael Alaniz, 49, called the department and admitted to shooting the crane on March 17. 

This is the second whooping crane shot and killed in Evangeline Parish this year, LDWF says, with the first being shot on Feb. 28 at a crawfish pond off Millers Lake Road. Agents cited 36-year-old Logan Q. Thrasher, of St. Landry, and 33-year-old Manuel Luis, of Zacapu, Michoacán, Mexico, for that crane's death.

The two cranes made up 2.5 percent of Louisiana's non-migratory whooping crane population. There are now just 80 left. 

Shooting a whooping crane violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and is punishable by a $400 to $950 fine and up to 120 days in jail. 

LDWF said Alaniz will also be fined up to $15,000 for the replacement value of the endangered bird.