I know. They started protecting them in the 70's, in my 20's and they have come back like nobody's business, Great! Some critters take forever to come back. In the 40's they started with less than 20 whooping cranes left and have only brought them back to a few hundred. It would take centuries to bring them back to where they were a few centuries ago. Slow reproducers. A lot of care for each chick, not like gaters.