In 1941, only 21 whooping cranes existed in the world. Due to the hardiness of the bird and the persistent efforts of conservationists, today’s whooping crane population stands at nearly 400 – but the whooping crane’s future in not yet secure. Wildlife Forever is helping to write the next chapter of the whooping crane’s recovery by supporting a project that is creating a new flock migratory flock of whooping cranes in central Wisconsin. For the first year, a trial run of the migratory flock was conducted with sandhill crane chicks as test subjects. Eleven chicks were trained to follow an ultralight plane that eventually led them from Wisconsin to Florida for their annual migration. The following April, without the aid of the ultralight, the sandhill flock returned to the very same landing strip they had left from six months earlier. After the success of that test-run, six whooping cranes were led by the ultralight to Florida, and the next year, sixteen made the flight.