WHOOPING CRANE

The Whooping Crane

The whooping crane is a story of hope — and a warning. In 1941, there were only 21 of these majestic birds left in the world. Through decades of painstaking conservation, that number has climbed to about 830. It's one of the most dramatic recoveries from the edge of extinction — and yet the whooping crane is still fragile, still vulnerable, still fighting.

Whooping cranes are the tallest birds in North America — snow-white with black wingtips, standing nearly five feet tall with a wingspan of over seven feet. They're famous for their haunting, bugle-like calls that can carry across miles of marshland, and for their elaborate courtship dances that they perform year after year with the same partner.

But here's what makes the whooping crane's story so precarious: all wild whooping cranes descend from a single population. This means extremely low genetic diversity — any new disease, any new threat, could potentially wipe out the entire species.