Bronx zoo welcomes adorable crane chick

There’s a new chick on the block looking to win hearts.

The Bronx Zoo announced Friday the hatching ofa white-napped crane chick this spring on the Northern Ponds adjacent to thezoo’s Himalayan Highlands exhibit.

The chick can be seen with its parents in the exhibit.

White-napped cranes are a migratory species which is native to China, Russia, Japan, North and South Korea, and Mongolia. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the species as “vulnerable” — because of loss of wetland habitats to agriculture —with there being an estimated wild population between 5,500 and 6,500.

The cranes are bred by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) through its Species Survival Plan, a cooperative breeding created to enhance genetic sustainability in zoos and aquariums.

WCS’s Mongolia Program has identified the cranes as a “conservation priority,”and has conducted censuses in high elevation wetlands of Mongolia and nearby countries. WCS has worked with conservation partners and governmentsto help conserve this species.