Cranes are here in part to remind us that there should always exist a few wild places on earth where only very special animals can survive. Such animals carry with them unspoken messages from those remote and wonderful places that only they can visit easily. Most people have never seen the Himalayas, nor will most have the good fortune to seek out black-necked cranes on the Tibetan Plateau. Yet perhaps it is enough to know that the mountains are there, and that somewhere amidst those mountains there is a wonderful species of crane is largely a mystery, and whose life is still essentially untouched by human influence.

-From Crane Music by Paul A. Johnsgard