The Dallas Zoo has hatched its very own whooping crane, joining the path of recovery for the species that was once on the brink of extinction.
The chick hit one month on Monday and is "thriving," the zoo announced in a statement.
"So this is just the first, right," Dallas Zoo Senior Curator of Birds and Ectotherms Sprina Liu said. "We and several other zoo partners are breeding whooping cranes that go back into the wild. So it's a very important project."
Whooping cranes are one of the rarest birds in North America. They have been an endangered species since 1970, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife. Their population, however, is increasing amid conservation efforts.
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"Today they're still dealing with habitat loss," Liu said. "Climate change is obviously at the forefront of our mind."
The zoo said whooping crane chicks are a cinnamon-brown color when they hatch and that the chick's signature snowy white feather coat will start to come in at around four months of age.
The whooping cranes at the Dallas Zoo are housed at their five-acre off-site breeding facility at the Whooping Crane Center of Texas in Mesquite.
"Whooping cranes are a huge thing in the U.S. It's a huge thing for Texas. They live on the coast of Texas, so you can see them flying over seasonally over Dallas/Fort Worth," Liu said. "It's a native species that we should really be conserving and it's something we can do in our own backyard to help conserve the species."
The Whooping Crane Center of Texas is not open to the public. You can follow updates on the chick's journey on the Dallas Zoo Twitter account.
