Makin' Whoopie

Biologists at the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., are "beaming with pride," the Fish and Wildlife Service reports, because whooping cranes number 13 and 18 from a flock they are closely monitoring have become the proud parents of two chicks. The parents were hatched in a lab, raised by human caretakers in costume and taught how to migrate by pilots of ultralight aircraft. The hatching of the chicks marks a milestone in the effort to reintroduce a wild whooping crane flock in eastern North America.