Woodland Park Zoo Visitors can See the Chick Following Mom and Dad Foraging

By Gigi Allianic 

Seattle, WA - Mother’s Day weekend emerged with the hatching of a male red-crowned chick at Woodland Park Zoo. Photograph the chick, which hatched on May 9. The red-crowned crane is the second most endangered species of cranes in the world.

Zoo visitors can see the chick following mom and dad foraging for crickets, mealworms and other food in the Wetlands section of the Temperate Forest.

The Kobe Oji Zoo, in Japan, donated the 17-year-old parents in 1992. As part of the red-crowned crane Species Survival Plan (SSP), more than a dozen successful hatchings have occurred between the pair since 1999. SSPs are cooperative breeding programs that work to ensure genetic diversity and demographic stability in North American zoos and aquariums. 

The zoo currently teams with the Muraviovka Park for Sustainable Land Use in the Amur River region of Russia, which works to protect cranes and their nesting areas in the park and work with local farmers to promote sustainable farming practices, instead of the slash-and-burn techniques that have traditionally been used.

INFO: Red-crowned cranes are renowned for their spectacular and elaborate courtship dances, and are known as important symbols of long life, peace, happiness and fidelity for many Asian cultures. Only an estimated population of 2,000 red-crowned cranes remain in the wild. The destruction of natural habitat on breeding grounds, in wintering areas, and along migration routes is having a devastating effect on the species and other migratory bird populations.

There are two distinct populations of red-crowned cranes. A resident population lives year-round on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. The other lives on the mainland where they breed in reed swamps and wet meadows in northern Manchuria and southeast Siberia. This population winters in paddy fields and grassy tidal flats in South Korea and eastern China.

Summer zoo hours are 9:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. daily. Visit www.zoo.org for more info.

601 North 59th Street * Seattle, Washington 98103, USA * 206-548-2500 * 206-548-1536 * TTY 206-548-2599 * www.zoo.org

To view Woodland Park Zoo's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-11-Woodland_Park_Zoo