China News Service, Qiqihar, June 26 (Zhao Weinan reporter Wang Lin) Qiqihar Longsha Zoo and Botanical Garden announced on the 26th that a white-naped crane and a red-crowned crane in the crane garden formed a family through "free love" and gave birth to a baby. A "mixed-blood" crane egg.
Cao Tianhai, deputy general manager of the Lonza Zoological and Botanical Garden, introduced that the Crane Garden is a mixed breeding of various cranes, including red-crowned cranes, white-naped cranes, and oriental white storks.
The pair of white-naped cranes and red-crowned cranes became husband and wife after "free love", and they laid crane eggs in 2021, but they did not hatch successfully due to the low survival rate of interspecific hybridization.
Crane eggs laid by white-naped cranes and red-crowned cranes Photo by Li He
This year, the "crane couple" once again laid a crane egg, which is closer to the egg of the red-crowned crane, and is currently incubated by the "white-naped crane father" and the "red-crowned crane mother" in turn.
The "crane father" and "he mother" who have become parents are very cautious about the "crystallization" of love. When one is sitting in a nest to hatch an egg, the other will be on guard while foraging for food.
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