Whooping Crane Love Stories

In this episode of DETOURS, Jordan and James are joined by Eva Szyszkoski, a wildlife technician with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries who specializes in the state's efforts to reintroduce the endangered whooping crane population to the landscape. One of the rarest birds in the world, the whooping crane's population in North America was down to only twenty-one birds in the wild in 1945. Since then, scientists have combined efforts to raise the birds in captivity while monitoring, and on occasions intervening with, populations released in specific habitats around the continent. Since 2011, Louisiana has hosted a small population—which Szyszkoski has played a major part in monitoring for years now. Over the course of our conversation, she shares the major struggles of Louisiana's reintroduction program, as well as its recent successes—and tells us what it is like to be face to face with these majestic, five-foot beauties.