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The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story
Millions of people know a little bit about efforts to save the whooping crane, thanks to the movie Fly Away Home and annual news stories about ultralight planes leading migratory flocks. But few realize that in the spring of 1941, the population of these magnificent birds—pure white with black wingtips, standing five feet tall with a seven-foot wingspan—had reached an all-time low of fifteen. Written off as a species destined for extinction, the whooping crane has made a slow but unbelievable comeback over the last seven decades.
This recovery would have been impossible if not for the efforts of Robert Porter Allen, an ornithologist with the National Audubon Society, whose courageous eight-year crusade to find the only remaining whooping crane nesting site in North America garnered nationwide media coverage. His search and his impassioned lectures about overdevelopment, habitat loss, and unregulated hunting triggered a media blitz that had thousands of citizens on the lookout for the birds during their migratory trips.
Allen’s tireless efforts changed the course of U.S. environmental history and helped lead to the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Though few people remember him today, his life reads like an Indiana Jones story, full of danger and adventure, failure and success. His amazing story deserves to be told.
This recovery would have been impossible if not for the efforts of Robert Porter Allen, an ornithologist with the National Audubon Society, whose courageous eight-year crusade to find the only remaining whooping crane nesting site in North America garnered nationwide media coverage. His search and his impassioned lectures about overdevelopment, habitat loss, and unregulated hunting triggered a media blitz that had thousands of citizens on the lookout for the birds during their migratory trips.
Allen’s tireless efforts changed the course of U.S. environmental history and helped lead to the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Though few people remember him today, his life reads like an Indiana Jones story, full of danger and adventure, failure and success. His amazing story deserves to be told.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published September 16, 2012
2 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen Kaska
37 books77 followersGrowing up in West, Texas during the 1950s, my average-American parents and the nuns at St. Mary’s School instilled in me“good girl” values, leaving an indelible stamp on my character. For respite from this engrainment, I began writing my Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series—set in historic hotels during the fifties, of course—to say and do things I would “never try at home.”
I write the Kate Caraway Animal-Rights Mystery Series, which is available in bookstores, on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble online.
I also write the Classic Triviography Mystery Series. My Alfred Hitchcock and Sherlock Holmes trivia books were finalists for the 2013 EPIC Award in nonfiction.
When not writing, I spend much of my time with my “pilot,” traveling the country’s back roads and byways; bird-watching; and looking for new locales for my mysteries. It was my passion for birds that led to The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story (University Press of Florida 2012).
When too road weary, I split time between my two favorite places, the Pacific Northwest and the Texas Coast. It’s tough though, having been born with the original sin of wanderlust. Nonetheless, my laptop is nicely stowed in my bag, and a bird reference book and binoculars are always on the front seat.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in physical anthropology, I taught middle-school science for 25 years. I was a staff writer for AustinFit magazine from 1997-2002. My articles have appeared in Cape Cod Life, Marco Polo, Agatha Christie Chronicle, Texas Now, and Home Cooking Magazine. I am an occasional contributor to Texas Highways magazine.
On a different note, while working as the marketing director for Cave Art Press, my 5-Minute Writings Tips blog posts were published in book form called Do You Have a Catharsis Handy: Five-Minute Writing Tips?
I write the Kate Caraway Animal-Rights Mystery Series, which is available in bookstores, on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble online.
I also write the Classic Triviography Mystery Series. My Alfred Hitchcock and Sherlock Holmes trivia books were finalists for the 2013 EPIC Award in nonfiction.
When not writing, I spend much of my time with my “pilot,” traveling the country’s back roads and byways; bird-watching; and looking for new locales for my mysteries. It was my passion for birds that led to The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story (University Press of Florida 2012).
When too road weary, I split time between my two favorite places, the Pacific Northwest and the Texas Coast. It’s tough though, having been born with the original sin of wanderlust. Nonetheless, my laptop is nicely stowed in my bag, and a bird reference book and binoculars are always on the front seat.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in physical anthropology, I taught middle-school science for 25 years. I was a staff writer for AustinFit magazine from 1997-2002. My articles have appeared in Cape Cod Life, Marco Polo, Agatha Christie Chronicle, Texas Now, and Home Cooking Magazine. I am an occasional contributor to Texas Highways magazine.
On a different note, while working as the marketing director for Cave Art Press, my 5-Minute Writings Tips blog posts were published in book form called Do You Have a Catharsis Handy: Five-Minute Writing Tips?
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 31, 2013
This is an example of someone from the Greatest Generation. The man gets out of his unheated car in Canada and uses the warmth of his hands to melt the ice off his windshield so he can continue his quest to save the cranes. Bad ass. Great story and heart-warming how a small group of dedicated individuals can do so much good.
August 11, 2016
I have been a supporter of Operation Migration for years and have been a great admirer of all those who continue to work so hard at saving the Whooping Cranes. Every year I follow the ultralight migration journal, although this has been the last year for that wonderful program.
Therefore it was a joy to learn of this book and of the hard work of Robert Allen and others who so early on put in such loving effort to save the Whoopers. I had never heard about their story and didn't know the efforts went back so many years. I greatly enjoyed reading this book. Thank you for presenting Robert Allen's story to us.
Therefore it was a joy to learn of this book and of the hard work of Robert Allen and others who so early on put in such loving effort to save the Whoopers. I had never heard about their story and didn't know the efforts went back so many years. I greatly enjoyed reading this book. Thank you for presenting Robert Allen's story to us.
October 5, 2012
Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
Ornithologist Robert (Bob) Porter Allen may not have single-handedly saved the whooping crane as the title implies, but the dedicated field observer, writer, and Audubon Society project and refuge manager played a key role in the early efforts to protect and study these endangered birds. Allen led the eight-year search for the last whooping crane nesting site in North America; he was also deeply involved in efforts to bring back rapidly declining populations of roseate spoonbills in Florida and flamingos in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Kaska’s biography of Allen’s life is competent, straightforward, and at times evocative. In the early chapters, the transitions between sections on his personal and professions lives are sometimes a little abrupt, but certainly both readable and interesting. Once the whooping cranes arrive on the scene, the story really picks up. Chapters on Allen’s long and initially fruitless hunt for the whoopers’ northern Canadian nesting grounds – a search made all the more difficult by the vast amount of territory to be covered and the tiny number of cranes involved – are compelling and descriptive. I did find Google Maps of use in envisioning the locations and scope of the search.
This is, in fact, a book as much about the whooping cranes’ precarious survival as it about Bob Allen. A lengthy epilogue covers the whooping crane project in the forty or so years since Allen’s death, including the effort to establish a second migrating flock in the eastern U.S. Whooping crane numbers have increased from less than 20 to around 400, but the birds’ future still hangs in the balance.
I recommend The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane to readers interested in birds and/or wildlife conservation.
FCC disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
Read more of my reviews at The Bookwyrm’s Hoard.
Ornithologist Robert (Bob) Porter Allen may not have single-handedly saved the whooping crane as the title implies, but the dedicated field observer, writer, and Audubon Society project and refuge manager played a key role in the early efforts to protect and study these endangered birds. Allen led the eight-year search for the last whooping crane nesting site in North America; he was also deeply involved in efforts to bring back rapidly declining populations of roseate spoonbills in Florida and flamingos in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Kaska’s biography of Allen’s life is competent, straightforward, and at times evocative. In the early chapters, the transitions between sections on his personal and professions lives are sometimes a little abrupt, but certainly both readable and interesting. Once the whooping cranes arrive on the scene, the story really picks up. Chapters on Allen’s long and initially fruitless hunt for the whoopers’ northern Canadian nesting grounds – a search made all the more difficult by the vast amount of territory to be covered and the tiny number of cranes involved – are compelling and descriptive. I did find Google Maps of use in envisioning the locations and scope of the search.
This is, in fact, a book as much about the whooping cranes’ precarious survival as it about Bob Allen. A lengthy epilogue covers the whooping crane project in the forty or so years since Allen’s death, including the effort to establish a second migrating flock in the eastern U.S. Whooping crane numbers have increased from less than 20 to around 400, but the birds’ future still hangs in the balance.
I recommend The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane to readers interested in birds and/or wildlife conservation.
FCC disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
Read more of my reviews at The Bookwyrm’s Hoard.
March 19, 2019
Kathleen Kaska wrote a compelling account of the noted ornithologist Robert Porter Allen's life and passion to save endangered bird species including the Roseate Spoonbill and Whooping Cranes. She focused much on Allen's study of Whooping Cranes in the Texas Aransas Wildlife Refuge starting in 1946 and his passion to discover the summer breeding grounds of the Whooping Cranes. Starting in 1947 and culminating in 1955 when Allen and colleagues discovering cranes nesting in the Wood Buffalo Park in northern Alberta. The trials Allen endured to glean insights into the crane's breeding behavior and rituals made Kaska's book so fascinating. Anyone intrigued with Whooping Cranes will be fascinated by her account and come to admire the field skills and passion of Robert Allen. His publications and writing with the Audubon Society on Whooping Cranes inspired the entire nation and helped save this magnificent species from extinction. The epilogue in the book describes the Whooping Crane Recovery Program and Operation Migration effort to train captive raised cranes to migrate via the eastern route from Wisconsin to Florida led by ultralight aircraft. Kaska outlines the first 10 year efforts to expand this eastern flock of cranes. Their success is a dramatic achievement of science and wildlife biology. I highly recommend this book.
February 14, 2025
I really loved this one! Scientific/research writing is always hard for me because it’s so dense, but this is written so well. It was so interesting hearing about the setbacks and different issues faced when developing conservation plans! I wish there was a more up to date book since this was published a while ago
June 14, 2025
Not gripping by any means but an important chronicle of the life and work of Robert Allen, an amazing person, scientist and adventurer. Kasha is an excellent researcher. But the writing/storytelling here is weak.
August 22, 2018
The sheer amount of willpower needed to research this species is incredible. It is a success story, but still very much a work in progress.
April 15, 2023
Very informative. I learned about the dedication of individuals, specifically Robert Porter Allen, to understand the behaviors of whooping cranes and ensure their survival!
April 29, 2024
Interesting, albeit not the best written/edited book. Still, learned a lot
October 28, 2014
I needed to read about a successful conservation effort with a real environmental hero. While the content of this book was everything I expected, the writing and editing could have been better. Even though the author is also a novelist, the story line didn't really hold me, the diverse parts were not well connected, and the flow of some chapters was very choppy (thus the need for editing). That said, this is an important conservation story that people should know about.
Want to read
August 12, 2012I have really enjoyed Kathleen's Sydney Lockhart mystery series with its quirky heroine and mid-century setting, so I will be eager to read this book as well. If you haven't read Kathleen Kaska, you should!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews