PMJA Award Submission - Interview - Audacious: Birdkeeper Chris Crowe on love and loss after a 20-year-bond with Walnut the crane

Audacious with Chion Wolf
Episode: (Excerpted from) When wild animals become family
Original Airdate: September 14, 2024
Category: Interview

In January 2024, a white-naped crane named Walnut died at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia.

Walnut was known for many things. Her particular species is endangered, so she was one of only 5,000 in the world.

She also had a mean streak; she was violent toward male cranes.

But Walnut was most well-known for her almost 20-year partnership with a human bird keeper named Chris Crowe. Chris was instrumental in helping Walnut reproduce.

In this excerpt from Audacious, Chion talks with Chris about what it was like to be the chosen life partner of this very special bird for more than a decade, and how he remembers her today.