Last Friday I found and photographed this pair of whooping cranes at a Champaign County Forest Preserve. There are about 600 whooping cranes alive today, which is great compared to the 1940s and 50s, when there were only 23 of them at a couple of points. Enormous federal, state and private resources have been (and continue to be) expended to prevent whooping cranes from becoming extinct.

For class discussion tomorrow please consider these questions: Does this make sense based on your best argument for preserving biodiversity from last week? If not, how would you justify efforts to preserve whooping cranes?