SEATTLE - Woodland Park Zoo is proud to announce the birth of two endangered red-crowned cranes. Hatched on June 9 and 10, their birth is significant because they are the first-ever red-crowned crane chicks in the zoo’s 100-year history.

The zoo participates in the Red-crowned Crane Species Survival Plan (SSP) and has been trying to breed its pair of red-crowned cranes since Japan's Kobe Oji Zoo donated them in 1992.

In an additional effort to save the species, Woodland Park Zoo participates in the Khinganski Project * a cooperative endeavor led by the National Aviary (Pittsburgh) * to return red-crowned and white-naped cranes to their native habitats in the Amur District, the extreme southwestern region of Russia.

Each year 10 surplus eggs are transferred from a number of zoos and breeding colonies in the U.S. to Khinganski Nature Reserve. Woodland Park Zoo provides financial support to the program as well as serving as a respite stop along the way as the eggs are transferred "home."

Red-crowned cranes are renowned for their spectacular and elaborate courtship dances, and known as important symbols of long life, peace, happiness and fidelity for many Asian cultures. Sadly the red-crowned crane is the second most endangered species of crane in the world; there is an estimated population of only 2,000. The destruction of natural habitat on breeding grounds, in wintering areas and along migration routes is having a devastating effect on cranes and other migratory bird populations.

There are two distinct populations of red-crowned cranes. A resident population lives year-round on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. The other lives on the mainland where they breed in reed swamps and wet meadows in northern Manchuria and southeast Siberia. This population winters in paddy fields and grassy tidal flats in South Korea and eastern China.

SSPs help manage populations of endangered species in North American zoos through breeding programs that ensure demographic stability and genetic diversity, and research and education to help preserve wild populations in their changing habitat.

You can see Woodland Park Zoo’s red-crowned crane family north of the Marsh exhibit in the Temperate Forest.