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George William Archibald (born 13 July 1946) is the co-founder of the International Crane Foundation and was the inaugural winner of the 2006 Indianapolis Prize. Archibald was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada to Donald Edison and Annie Letitia ("Lettie") (née MacLeod) Archibald. He received his bachelor's degree from Dalhousie University in 1968 and his doctorate in 1975 from Cornell University. He married Kyoko Matsumoto on 15 August 1981. [Reference: Bergquist, Lee (22 August 2006) "Crane conservationist to receive $100,000 prize" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin), page B-1].
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In 1973, when cranes were in a perilous situation and many of the fifteen remaining species were on the brink of extinction, Archibald founded the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He was Director from 1973 to 2000. Currently he heads a World Conservation Union commission on crane survival. Forty years later, the world's cranes are still in a perilous situation.
At the time, during 1976, Tex was only one of 100 whooping cranes (Grus americana) left in the world, and the only female whooping crane in her home at the San Antonio Zoo, so experts of a young crane breeding program were desperate to get her to produce offspring. But since Tex had been hand-raised in captivity by humans, and thus had been accidentally "imprinted" to believe that she was human, she refused to mate with any male whooping crane.
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Archibald pioneered several techniques to rear cranes in captivity, including the use of crane costumes by human handlers. Archibald spent three years with a highly endangered whooping crane named Tex, acting as a male crane – walking, calling, dancing – to shift her into reproductive condition. Through his dedication and the use of artificial insemination, Tex eventually laid a fertile egg. As Archibald later recounted the tale on The Tonight Show he stunned the audience and host Johnny Carson with the sad end of the story – the death of Tex shortly after the hatching of her one and only chick.
Further Reading
The Man Who Saves Cranes
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The Man Who Saves Cranes
George Archibald was awarded the $100,000 Lufkin Prize from National Audubon in recognition of his long career in conservation. It’s Archibald, as much as anyone, who is responsible for the whooping crane’s long, slow climb back from the brink of extinction. A pivotal moment in that return can be traced back 37 years, to an individual whooping crane going through an identity crisis.
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In 1973, when cranes were in a perilous situation and many of the fifteen remaining species were on the brink of extinction, Archibald founded the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He was Director from 1973 to 2000. Currently he heads a World Conservation Union commission on crane survival. Forty years later, the world's cranes are still in a perilous situation.
At the time, during 1976, Tex was only one of 100 whooping cranes (Grus americana) left in the world, and the only female whooping crane in her home at the San Antonio Zoo, so experts of a young crane breeding program were desperate to get her to produce offspring. But since Tex had been hand-raised in captivity by humans, and thus had been accidentally "imprinted" to believe that she was human, she refused to mate with any male whooping crane.
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Archibald pioneered several techniques to rear cranes in captivity, including the use of crane costumes by human handlers. Archibald spent three years with a highly endangered whooping crane named Tex, acting as a male crane – walking, calling, dancing – to shift her into reproductive condition. Through his dedication and the use of artificial insemination, Tex eventually laid a fertile egg. As Archibald later recounted the tale on The Tonight Show he stunned the audience and host Johnny Carson with the sad end of the story – the death of Tex shortly after the hatching of her one and only chick.
Further Reading
The Man Who Saves Cranes
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