Sarus cranes in Thailand aren’t the only cranes facing serious danger. Whooping cranes in North America fight near-extinction too. Unlike sarus cranes, whooping cranes need to migrate long distances for the winter months. But the captive whooping crane chicks have no parents. Who will teach them how to migrate?

In the early 2000s, the cranes’ human caretakers gave a group of chicks migration lessons. They started very early—even before the chicks hatched! Workers planned to use a lightweight plane to teach the birds where to fly. To get the chicks used to the idea, they played a recording of the aircraft engine near the still-unhatched eggs. Then when the birds did hatch, the costumed caretakers never spoke around them. They wanted the birds to be comfortable with two kinds of noise: the sounds of nature, and the racket made by the plane.

The plan worked. When the birds grew big enough to fly, they followed the plane into the sky. Eventually they followed it all the way from Wisconsin to Florida. The journey took about three months and 1,000 miles. Curious people watched the flight’s progress online. When spring came, most of the birds flew back to Wisconsin just like they were supposed to.

God made animals to learn something important at a very young age: surivival. Baby cranes learn to eat, fly, and migrate. Parent cranes even model how the chicks should protect their own eggs from danger one day. As chicks grow into huge birds, they keep all the life-saving habits their parents taught them. God designed people to learn when they are young too. He designed them to learn about Him. “Train up a child in the way he should go,” says Proverbs 22:6. “Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Do you know God? You are made to. Knowing Him will preserve your life!