Take :30 For Nature: Whooping Cranes

The Whooping Cranes are North America’s largest bird at nearly 5 feet tall and a wingspan of about 7.5 feet. The Aransas whoopers have recovered from just 18 birds left in the wild in the 1940’s to around 430 birds today. If you include the other wild flocks in North America and the captive whoopers there is only a total of about 800 cranes left in existence today. Images and video were taken by Hector Astorga during his 2020 Whooping Crane Photo Workshop at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.