ATLANTA -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $12,500 reward for information on the shooting deaths of endangered whooping cranes.

Wildlife authorities were investigating the deaths of three whooping cranes after they were found by hunters in Calhoun County, just west of Albany on Dec. 30. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom MacKenzie said the deaths were considered suspicious because the birds were found together.

After preliminary testing, wildlife scientists concluded that the cranes suffered injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.

The cranes were released last October in Wisconsin as part of a program to reintroduce the birds to the eastern United States. They had special bands and were equipped with transmitters.

According to Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership trackers, they had last been tracked in Hamilton County, Tenn., where they roosted Dec.10 with three other cranes.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there are about 570 whooping cranes left in the world, 400 in the wild. About 100 cranes are in the eastern migratory population.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agents are leading a joint investigation with Georgia Department of Natural Resources conservation rangers.

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Whoever shot these cranes need to be thrown under the jail, guns confiscated and never be allowed to hunt anything ever again