SeaWorld and similar attractions that serve up cetacean entertainment to the masses don’t do that much for me. However, many of the professionals who work at places like these exhibit enormous compassion for animals. Two recent non-marine examples both include Sandhill Cranes.

First, an adult Sandhill Crane with a rubber gasket around his bill was brought to SeaWorld Orlando. SeaWorld vets removed the gasket, and happened to rescue, during the bird’s rehabilitation, a newly hatched Sandhill chick. Rather than risk the chick’s imprinting on humans, the team cleverly thought to pair their two charges. Not only does their approach make for sound science, it also offers some outstanding photo opportunities…


Cute baby Sandhill Crane


Chick pulling on surrogate’s tail feathers

SeaWorld Orlando’s Aviculture Team plans to release the adult and chick together, once the chick learns to fly and the adult is fully recovered. Like I said, I may not be a big fan of this kind of operation (are you?) but I’m certainly impressed with and grateful for SeaWorld’s commitment to animal rescue (and adorable freaking photos, used with permission of course!)

Written by Mike
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.