Region: North America

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I was working in Zambia when word came that the United States would pull out of the international Paris Agreement on climate change. Listening to this news with a group of Zambian colleagues, I was saddened. In Zambia, and nearly everywhere we work around the world, climate change is treated as a life or death matter. The prospect of intensely prolonged droughts and water shortages, chronic food insecurity, power outages, coastal land loss under rising seas, and extremely violent storms doesn’t bode well for poor countries like Zambia that lack the resources to adapt to these daunting challenges. These countries have contributed little to global warming but face the brunt of its impacts.

Region: North America

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I ride a unicycle and often find myself thinking about balance. I’ve learned I can do all sorts of surprising things when firmly balanced on one wheel… playing hockey, riding marathon distances, or winding down a mountainside on bumpy dirt trails. Conservation is likewise about finding balance in challenging circumstances – that elusive balance that results in win-win solutions for people and wildlife and thereby builds broad public support for conservation.

Region: North America

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Media Contact: Betsy Didrickson, Information Services Manager, 608-356-9462 x124

Editor’s note: photos available by emailing Betsy

BARABOO, Wis. – George Archibald, Ph.D., co-founder of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis., is one of five finalists for the inaugural Award for Conservation Excellence (ACE) presented by the Banovich Wildscapes Foundation and sponsored by Cabela’s Outdoor Fund, the Cabela Family Foundation, and Bass Pro Shops.

Region: North America

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Rare Sighting of Endangered Whooping Cranes Inspires Awe and Gratitude

The International Crane Foundation and the Aldo Leopold Foundation are both rooted in a love and respect for the land. Our headquarters are also neighbors, sharing the same landscape in southern Wisconsin. Over the last several years a growing number of Sandhill Cranes has started staging near the historic Aldo Leopold Shack during the fall migration. Where there are cranes, “craniacs” will follow, and it was a natural progression to organize a gathering of our two organizations to view the fall Crane Congregations.

Region: North America

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Whooping Crane 72-17, or Amethyst, rests during migration at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in northern Indiana. Amethyst was reared at our headquarters this summer by adult cranes – known as parent-rearing – and was released in Wisconsin this fall near wild cranes. The young crane began migration with Sandhill Cranes on Nov. 16, 2017, and arrived in Florida four days later!

If you look closely, you may see a Whooping Crane among the thousands of Sandhill Cranes that are migrating south this month across the United States. Whooping Cranes are quickly returning to their wintering areas in the southeastern United States and Texas, including our project areas in Indiana, Alabama and the central Texas coast.

Region: North America

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The fall migration of the last-remaining wild Whooping Crane flock has started! As they migrate south from Canada, the Whooping Cranes stop at critical wetlands, such as the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in central Kansas, where they rest and refuel for the remainder of their flight.

Region: North America

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Baraboo, WI – For more than 40 years, many organizations and agencies have been working to bring back the Whooping Crane. Today, their majestic presence and unique haunting call are slowly re-emerging on the landscape – including eastern Kentucky.

Region: North America

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The survival of Whooping Cranes depends on the actions of people – people protecting the ecosystems where Whooping Cranes live and people living in harmony with the birds. Over the past five years, thirteen Whooping Crane shootings were documented. Shootings currently account for 19% of known adult mortality in the reintroduced population of Whooping Cranes in the eastern United States. A few of the cranes were killed because they were mistaken for legally-hunted species. But most appear to have been killed in acts of vandalism. Whooping Cranes in the wild still number less than 500 and the population grows slowly. Therefore, any mortalities, particularly of adult breeding birds, can pose a significant threat to the long-term survival of the species.