The Whooper Highway

Standing five feet tall and angel white, Whooping Cranes are the tallest birds in North America and the rarest crane species in the world. Once widespread throughout the Great Plains, the last wild migratory flock plummeted to 15 birds in the 1940s. Today, their number has climbed to some 540 birds, thanks to the conservation work by many. However, in a world inundated with urban development, habitat loss, water quality and quantity issues, and climate change–much is at stake. Over five years, photographer and writer Mike Forsberg, working alongside researchers, documented the lives of this last wild population of whooping cranes. In the spring of 2022, he followed the birds on their migration north. This six-minute narrative animation uses cutting-edge science and telemetry data to follow that migration through the lens of one family's remarkable and poignant journey of 37 days and 2,500 miles up the heart of the continent, connecting critical wetland and grassland habitats along the way. This video was produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in partnership with Mike Forsberg, the members of the Whooping Crane Tracking Partnership in the US and Canada, and Platte Basin Timelapse. Animation created by 422 South.