Is it true that Kansas and Texas actually have a hunting season on sandhill cranes? Are the birds good to eat?

Michael Teply, Omaha, Nebraska

Living in nebraska, where sandhill'crane watching along the Platte River is practically a religion, you might be startled to learn that Homo sapiens has license to hunt Grus canadensis not only in Kansas and Texas but also in the seven other states that make up the country's Central Flyway. As a matter of fact, your state is the lone abstainer in the group.

Hunting cranes is nothing new. At the turn of the century, crane populations had crumpled under pressure from habitat disruption and market gunners, who sold the birds primarily for their meat. Hunting was officially banned by the federal government in 1918 but was revived about 45 years later. By that time, the midcontinent population had recovered and adapted so well to the agricultural landscape that it came to be regarded as a pest.

That's because migrating flocks can quickly pick clean several acres of sprouting corn, wheat, and sorghum. Hunters have typically rallied to the side of affected farmers. In the early 1960s, New Mexico sanctioned a so'called "depredation hunt" to control crop damage. Since then, the sport has become increasingly popular-the number of hunters last season rose 21 percent from the year before-with mail'order catalogues advertising crane calls and decoys, and outfitters using the Internet to promote hunts. More states are considering seasons, including Wisconsin, where a debate currently rages over a proposal to legalize crane hunting, mainly-you guessed it-to control crop damage. Wherever the issue arises, says Jeb Barzen of the nonprofit International Crane Foundation, it pits "those who can't conceive of hunting the bird against those who can't conceive of not hunting the bird."

Last year nearly 7 percent of the midcontinent population was "harvested." The position of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is that these birds can withstand a certain level of hunting, which is determined annually by monitoring their numbers.

As to how they taste, here's a description from one outfitter's web site: "The sandhill crane makes for excellent table fare. Each bird yields about two to three pounds of breast meat. It is red meat, the same as its fellow migratories...similar in texture to a sirloin steak, but less greasy than a duck or goose."

What is the status of the remaining pupfish?

-Joyce Horsefield, Fountain Valley, California

First, the good news: One of the widest ranging of the pupfishes, the sheepshead minnow, is doing well enough to stay off the endangered'species list. Most of the others, however, are in critical condition. A dozen species native to the arid Southwest-from the Ash Meadows pupfish to the Warm Springs pupfish-are endangered, threatened, or of special concern.

While it may be argued that there's nothing more at risk than a fish in the desert, these tenacious little creatures have clung to life in a harsh environment for many millennia. Today, they face another set of challenges: habitat destruction, groundwater pumping, pollution, and competition from introduced species.

Though small in size, most reach only about an inch and a half long, they figure as big fish in scientific and environmental circles. They have been called "the Darwin finches of the desert" because, like the birds the great naturalist studied in the Galápagos, they have evolved myriad adaptations to survive in each niche they occupy. They can also tolerate a wide range of water temperatures and adjust from fresh water to salt water in seconds.

Two decades ago the Devil's Hole pupfish in Nevada was the focus of a battle that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court affirming the endangered fish's intrinsic right to life. This decision blocked the well pumping that had jeopardized the species' future. In 1981 the Tecopa pupfish, a native of two springs in California's Death Valley, was the first creature on the endangered'species list to become extinct. Two years later, the Ash Meadows Amargosa and Devil's Hole pupfishes spurred the establishment of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a rare desert wetland in southern Nevada. A