The Bird That Took a Human Mate
Updated on February 13, 2024 at 11:42 ET.
The early 2000s were an excellent time for romance. J. Lo married Marc Anthony. Vanessa Carlton vowed to walk a thousand miles for love. Ryan Gosling kissed Rachel McAdams in the pouring rain. And in Front Royal, Virginia, Chris Crowe flapped his arms to woo Walnut, a five-foot-tall white-naped crane.
Walnut was a graceful, strong-willed bird, if a tad antisocial. That year, she’d spurned the affections of the males of her species, and instead bonded with Crowe, her keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. Walnut’s love for Crowe lasted 20 years, until she , at the age of 42. Theirs was a strange bond, of course; it’s rare for a female crane to select a human boyfriend. But it is not without precedent. This unusual relationship could help save Walnut’s threatened species—such a thing has happened before.
