I came here to meet Richard Dunn, assistant curator, and his crew of keepers at the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The facility is a hub for whooping crane captive rearing, as conservationists work to reintroduce and restore a historic non-migratory population in southwest Louisiana—absent since 1950. It’s also a forever home for whooping cranes and endangered Mississippi sandhill cranes that cannot be released back into the wild.

I met “Fog,” a young-of-the-year chick from the Wisconsin Baraboo Hills birds. As an egg, Fog was removed from the nest, hatched at ICF, and sent to ASSC to be reared and released with a cohort of other similarly aged chicks. Unfortunately, Fog had a congenital wing defect that required amputation, making him unfit for release. He now has a permanent home as an education and model bird for other whoopers at ASSC.

“We don’t throw anyone away,” said Richard. “We are trying to build a better bird.” Those are quotes I won’t forget.

I followed Fog’s peer cohort and costumed staff through their daily routines of care, culminating in a long day of capture, transport, banding, and release of the cohort a few hours away at White Lake Wetland Conservation Area in southwest Louisiana—the last place where a wild, non-migratory whooper population once thrived.

There, I met Sara Zimorski and Eva Szyszkowski, who lead whooping crane conservation for the state of Louisiana. Committed and determined, Sara and Eva never seem to stop in their daily work of monitoring and managing these birds once they are released into the landscape.

While with Sara and Eva, we also scouted possible timelapse camera locations in both natural and agricultural landscapes, to show change over time in key habitats where whoopers nest.