Sandhill Cranes

Aldo Leopold, the father of modern day wildlife management, wrote about the Sandhill Cranes, saying “When we hear his call, we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution.” The fossils of a bird with identical structure to the Sandhill Crane has been carbon dated to have lived 10 million years ago, making the Sandhill Crane the longest surviving bird on the planet.