Zoo Review: International Crane Foundation, Part I

How interesting would you expect a facility to be if it had a grand total of fifteen species on display?  And all fifteen of those were members of the same family?  And of those fifteen species, about half of them were species that were fairly common in other zoos?  Wouldn't sound that interesting at first, would it?

If the facility in question happened to be the International Crane Foundation, you'd be wrong.

Located in Baraboo, Wisconsin (not that far from the state capital in Madison), ICF was founded in 1973 by Ron Sauey and George Archibald.  Sauey and Archibald were ornithology students from Cornell University who developed a deep passion for saving cranes - iconic birds found across much of the world, most species of which were endangered, some critically so.   While Sauey and Archibald championed research, education, and habitat conservation as pillars of their campaign to save cranes, they also recognized the importance of captive breeding, both for reintroduction to the wild and for exhibition and education.  As such, the facility has the distinction of being the only facility on earth to house all fifteen of the world's cranes.  Two of the fifteen I had never seen before my visit, and a third I had only seen once before.

Visitors start their tour at the welcome center, which features educational displays, a brief film, and a (very nice) gift shop (and this from someone who normally eschews gift shops).  It's also here that visitors will encounter their first species of crane, the sandhill crane.  These are the world's most common cranes (outnumbering the individuals of the other fourteen species combined), and can not infrequently be encountered wild on the grounds of the Foundation depending on the time of year.  It wasn't nesting season at the time of my visit, but I still saw a few wild cranes, either flying ahead or strolling by the side of the driveway.  

Outside, a trail leads to two very large, very beautiful habitats for two of the most endangered cranes - the whooping crane of North America and the Siberian crane of Asia.  Both of these habitats are walk-ins, allowing visitors to stand on a viewing deck and get a completely unencumbered view of the birds in their vast, wetland yards.  With such big yards and only two birds per yard (cranes are fiercely territorial, and can't be kept in large flocks year round, as flamingos could be), you'd think the exhibits would appear lacking.  In reality, the birds still manage to dominate their enclosures and make their presence felt.  I enjoyed listening to the whooping cranes call in unison, as well as watching the Siberian cranes swim (the first time I've ever seen a crane swim, which was exciting).  Tucked in the back of both yards I also saw mounds of vegetation serving as nests.

The visitor areas of the exhibits contained plenty of informational material about cranes and their conservation.  It was especially fascinating to read about the story of the whooping crane, the species which ICF had largely been formed to save specifically.

The next two crane species are found in a similar pair of habitats, this one themed on the role of cranes in culture (throughout their range, the various species of cranes have prominent roles in mythology and lore).  These species are the black-necked crane (with a mural background that is evocative of the Himalayan highlands from which this species hails) and the brolga, a unique Australian species which, to my knowledge, is exhibited nowhere else in the US (it was my first time seeing them). 

Tomorrow, we'll cover the rest of the facility and the remaining cranes.

International Crane Foundation