Finally, each banded crane is moved to a release pen near older Whooping cranes chosen as likely to let the young youngster join them. In the pen is young female 32-16, taken to another county and put near two older cranes. Just minutes later, two adult Whooping cranes that experts had “targeted” for becoming alloparents (wild adoptive parents) appear. They visit the pen many times—a good sign! The next day, the experts from Operation Migration release the young bird. Will the two adult cranes bring #32-16 on the journey south? No one knows. We’ll watch to see!

Heather Ray, Operation Migration