Some conservation stories are stranger than fiction. This one involves a bird, a scientist, and years of daily dancing in a Wisconsin barn.
A whooping crane named Gee Whiz died on February 24, 2021, at age 38, leaving behind a family of 178 genetically diverse whooping cranes. That number matters, because this species almost disappeared completely. His story starts with his mother, and with a man who was willing to look a little silly for a good cause.
A bird who thought she was human
By the 1940s, whooping cranes had been reduced to a tiny handful of birds, and the species was still critically endangered decades later. A female whooping crane named Tex hatched at the San Antonio Zoo in 1967. She had health problems as a chick and needed constant human care, so unlike most young cranes, she grew up around zookeepers instead of her own kind. In birds, this early bonding is called imprinting, and it usually happens fast and sticks for life. Tex grew up believing she was human. She had no interest in male cranes and only wanted to be near people.
That was a real problem for conservationists. Every whooping crane's genes counted, and if Tex never bred, hers would vanish with her.
