Whooping Crane "Retired" to Zoo After Becoming Too Tame

When a wild animal gets too attached to humans it may mean it is no longer wild.

Barbara Behrendt at the The St. Petersburg Times reports:

"The whooping crane known as 710 symbolizes what goes wrong when people feed wildlife. The rare crane spent the winter in Spring Hill. But instead of foraging for food in the wild, he was nourished on bird feeders kept by nearby residents. When 710 returned to Wisconsin in early spring, the bird again turned to humans. He began to visit the ethanol plant five miles away from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, where truckloads of corn are delivered daily. Too tame to live in the wild, the crane was returned to Florida this week, to live his life among humans, as an educational exhibit at Lowry Park Zoo." See full article.