Standing up to five feet tall, whooping cranes are the tallest bird in North America. Whooping cranes had the unfortunate honor of being on the first list of endangered species in 1967. In April of this year, Louisiana biologists celebrated the hatching of a whooping crane chick. The birth marked the first time that a wild whooping crane hatched in the state since 1939!

Considering there were just 15 whoopers in the world when recovery efforts began in the 1940s, a wild-hatched chick is quite significant. Now the total wild whooping crane population is over 440. The new chick joins a population reintroduced to Louisiana in 2011. As of August, it has fledged and begun to take short flights with its parents.

Wood bison