What is The Crane and the Keeper? A story of the unexpected dangers of imprinting. An interspecies friendship story. A story of persistence. A love story. A story of humans both harming—and saving—a species. And it is a nonfiction picture book written by Meeg Pincus and illustrated by Gillian Eilidh O’Mara about Walnut, a rare white-naped crane, and Chris Crowe, the human she chose as her mate.
Walnut’s parents had been poached from their homelands in Asia and smuggled into the United States. Volunteer rescued the birds, and in 1981, a chick hatched in a barn in Wisconsin, and was named after a pie in the local diner. But the volunteers paid too much loving attention to Walnut. She imprinted on humans so strongly that she identified as human. As she grew, she attacked the males that were presented to her. For other species, breeding might not have mattered. But for the endangered white-naped cranes, Walnut’s genes were essential to saving her species. With wild parents, she was unrelated to the other white-naped craned in captivity.
“A trouble called imprinting” in THE CRANE AND THE KEEPER
After failing at several zoos, Walnut was sent to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Virginia. That same year, NZCBI hired Chris Crowe as the crane keeper. Patiently, over years, Chris earned Walnut’s trust and then love as she danced and courted him. Chris danced back, offered nesting materials—and was able to give Walnut an injections so that she could lay fertilized eggs.
Award-winning author Meeg Pincus focuses both writing and supporting “Solutionary Stories”—stories that help people, animals and the planet. Other books include Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery and Cougar Crossing: How Hollywood’s Celebrity Cougar Helped Build a Bridge for City Wildlife which received the Bank Street College Cook Prize. The Crane and the Keeper has already been honored by the Junior Library Guild as a 2025 selection. Knowing her work, the Smithsonian reached out directly to Meeg to tell this story.
Artist Gillian Eilidh O’Mara is noted for her luminous depictions of light. In The Crane and the Keeper, she uses a palette of sunset hues that links to the rosy patches around Walnut’s eyes. The illustrations are inviting, welcoming, and thought-provoking. The artwork on the spread showing the gaze and connection between a bison and Chris Crowe visually strengthens the theme and message of the book: if humans hard wildlife species, the humans must save them.
A young Chris Crowe and a bison in THE CRANE AND THE KEEPER
The backmatter in The Crane and the Keeper is especially detailed and rich. It includes additional information on cranes in general, on Walnut specifically, and on animal imprinting and how it can be avoided. There’s a Q&A with Chris Crowe (including a question about how to help birds at home), a section of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI), additional resources, a bibliography and a glossary.
Backmatter on Walnut, cranes and imprinting in THE CRANE AND THE KEEPER
For years, the story of “the crane with a crush” made newspaper headlines around the world, and this book shares this incredible story with young readers. Children will be especially intrigued by the process and problems of imprinting and the challenges created when a species believes it is something that it is not.
The Crane and the Keeper is a book that belongs in home, school and public libraries. It’s a great gift for all young wildlife lovers and conservationists, and for bird lovers of any age.
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The Crane and the Keeper by Meeg Pincus, illustrated by Gillian Eilidh O’Mara
Smithsonian Kids and Candlewick Entertainment, 2025
ISBN: 978-1536232363
$18.99 USA, $24.99 CAN
40 pages, Grade level PreK-3, ages 4-8
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