The Collaborative International Dictionary
Whooping \Whoop"ing\, a. & n. from Whoop, v. t.
Whooping cough (Med.), a violent, convulsive cough,
returning at longer or shorter intervals, and consisting
of several expirations, followed by a sonorous
inspiration, or whoop; chin cough; hooping cough.
--Dunglison.
Whooping crane (Zo["o]l.), a North American crane ( Crus Americana) noted for the loud, whooplike note which it utters.
Whooping swan (Zo["o]l.), the whooper swan. See the Note under Swan.
Wiktionary
n. ''Grus americana'', a kind of bird.
WordNet
n. rare North American crane having black-and-white plumage and a trumpeting call [syn: whooper, Grus americana]
Wikipedia
The whooping crane (Grus americana), the tallest North American bird, is an endangered crane species named for its whooping sound. In 2003, there were about 153 pairs of whooping cranes. Along with the sandhill crane, it is one of only two crane species found in North America. The whooping crane's lifespan is estimated to be 22 to 24 years in the wild. After being pushed to the brink of extinction by unregulated hunting and loss of habitat to just 21 wild and two captive whooping cranes by 1941, conservation efforts have led to a limited recovery. As of February 2015, The total population was 603 including 161 captive birds.
Usage examples of "whooping crane".
When the birds became extinct (all but the whooping crane), I was reasonably sure that human beings were on the way out, too.
Flocking is flocking -- it doesn't matter if it's done by a whooping crane or a little computer-sprite.
The late Prince d'Agrigente, marshal of France, had a voice like that of a whooping crane, and easily audible, I should have thought, from Moscow to St.
On the counter, close to where he stood, there was a brass business-card holder cast in the shape of a whooping crane, glowing dull red.
This psychological pressure causes her to kick the back of my seat in an irregular rhythm, similar to the mating-dance of the Whooping Crane.
That evening a Venezuelan tanker heading for Port Arthur, Texas, experienced some mysterious calamity in the Gulf of Mexico that spilled a load of ungelled oil on the shores of the whooping crane wildlife refuge near Corpus Christi.