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At 42 years old, Walnut was considered geriatric for her species. She far surpassed the median life expectancy for white-naped cranes in human care, which is 15 years.
She lived almost 3 times the average life expectancy for her species!?! That’s genuinely insane! Imagine a human living to 180 years old!
Single women live longest
This happens quite often with animals in captivity. Nature is dangerous (and health care is important!)
15 seems to be the captivity average though, not natural average.
Fair point, I was just speaking generally, and that she actually lived way longer than most of her species since most aren’t in captivity
White napped crane life expectancy in the wild is unknown.
So it sounds like you didn’t know that, either.
The secret is murdering your spouses?
I found this particularly funny. It wasn’t like a funny accidental thing. Dude was trying to mate with the bird.
In September 2004, Walnut arrived at NZCBI’s Virginia campus, where scientists regularly breed cranes that have behavioral or physical limitations by using assisted reproduction techniques, including artificial insemination. By observing and mimicking how NZCBI’s male white-naped cranes interacted with their mates during breeding season, bird keeper Chris Crowe gained Walnut’s elusive trust. He pair-bonded with her by flapping his arms in a manner similar to the species’ unison dance, offered her nesting materials and brought her food. Once she was receptive to breeding, Crowe was able to use sperm collected from a male crane to artificially inseminate Walnut without the need for physical restraint
They had 8 chicks together.
Bro better have gotten ‘Exceeds Expectations’ on his performance review
Can you imagine if she had rejected him? She could’ve killed him!
That man’s human son is gonna pilot the starship Enterprise.
Amazing
“I can fix her”
Walnut a.k.a. Nutcracker
Can you imagine that workplace environment though?
"Hey boss, I’m leaving for that 2 weeks paid training on how to catfish a bird my height and get it pregnant with a syringe. "
“Don’t forget receipts for accounting.”
This is such a wacky world, I love it.
Apparently this is a thing with ostriches too?
