INDIANA – Indiana’s most endangered bird, the majestic whooping crane, is facing an ongoing battle for survival, and biologists are employing a highly unusual but successful tactic: costume rearing.
The species, which once dwindled to just 21 individuals in 1941, has rebounded to more than 800 birds globally today. However, the future of the whooping crane, especially the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP) to which all Indiana cranes belong, remains precarious. As of Fall 2025, the EMP numbers only 64 individuals.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR), in close partnership with the International Crane Foundation (ICF), is pioneering innovative conservation techniques. The most striking of these is costume rearing.
The method involves ICF staff raising young whooping cranes in captivity while deliberately preventing them from habituating to humans. Caretakers don full-body white costumes and manipulate a crane puppet in their hands to mimic the adult birds. By acting like adult cranes, the human form is masked, ensuring the chicks imprint on their own species rather than people…