Raising Crane
In this short, costumed scientists create a carefully choreographed childhood for a flock of whooping cranes to save them from extinction. It's the ultimate feel-good story, but it also raises some troubling questions about what it takes to get a species back to being wild.
- Duration
- 21m
- Broadcast on
- 03 Dec 2012
- Audio Format
- other
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In this short, costumed scientists create a carefully choreographed childhood for a flock of whooping cranes to save them from extinction. It's the ultimate feel-good story, but it also raises some troubling questions about what it takes to get a species back to being wild.
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Oh, wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC and NPR. Hey, I'm Jad Abumrod. I'm Robert Crohelet. This is Radio Lab. The podcast. And today on the podcast, sort of kind of following in the footsteps of our inheritance show. We have-- it's a feel-good story that you may not know how to feel about. It was like a bad feel-good story. It's-- I don't know. OK. I'm willing to be confused in my feelings if that's what it's going to take. Yes. Let me get things for all. I'm going to introduce reporter Andrea Seabrook. Hello. Hey, how's it going? She'll be telling us this next story. Good. How are you? I'm excited to hear what it is you've discovered on your adventures. I have discovered many things-- young grasshopper. I'm ready. OK, so I went to this place. The following entry wrote into Patuxent, which I sort of knew existed, but I thought it was just like a little place north of Washington. US Department of Interior, US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. There's a guard house. You drive into this place, and it's like driving. Seriously, it's like driving out of the beltway and into Jurassic Park. They're just tall, old-growth trees. It's suddenly sort of lush meadows and verdant. It's like a hidden, magical forest. It really gives you a sense of what this place must have been like before we came in and sort of ass-faulted everything. You're just to set things up a bit. OK. Scientists in this place are basically trying to go backwards. They're trying to essentially re-evolve a species of bird that has lost its history. Which bird is that? Whooping cranes. Whooping cranes. Yes. Whooping cranes. Oh, yeah. I know about that. Yeah, this place has been written out a lot. There have been movies made about it. It's sort of the famous example of conservation, but when Andrea went to check it out, she discovered this mystery or this question that I never knew about that's right at the centre
Transcription truncated.
In this short, costumed scientists create a carefully choreographed childhood for a flock of whooping cranes to save them from extinction. It's the ultimate feel-good story, but it also raises some troubling questions about what it takes to get a species back to being wild.