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My Life with Cranes
The International Crane Foundation is delighted to announce the publication of Dr. George Archibald’s new book of collected stories, My Life with Cranes!
George is a great storyteller, true stories that he himself made happen through faith and perseverance. These qualities kept George going despite numerous setbacks – the disease disaster for the captive flock, the loss of Tex the Whooping Crane to a mob of raccoons, and the unexpected death of George’s close friend and conservation partner Ron Sauey.
Imagine taking the public bus across Iran accompanied only by a handful of cards bearing simple phrases in Persian, a short time later walking alone through rain and mud among the rice paddies toward a damgah (duck trap) in order to locate Siberian Cranes – only to be intercepted by stern hunters who didn’t welcome strangers. Yet just at that moment, you might be able to guess which loud calls rose from behind the line of trees and waterfowl traps. But there is an even more satisfying question – who else but George would walk into such a situation? This volume gives instance after instance of leaps of faith, a tireless search for meaningful action, and the passionate readiness to leap for opportunity… to enter China, or Russia to create close friendships that enabled the complexities of 10,000-mile egg shipments to happen during the dark years of the cold war.
Most of the stories come from the early years, when dreaming big depended on taking risks and on the freedom to follow creativity. George has always offered hope, his time, and his encouragement to helping others – young men and women – live their own versions of dream and action. Ultimately, George has succeeded through the trust we have all afforded him for his immense caring, for the cranes certainly, and for all of us.
George is a great storyteller, true stories that he himself made happen through faith and perseverance. These qualities kept George going despite numerous setbacks – the disease disaster for the captive flock, the loss of Tex the Whooping Crane to a mob of raccoons, and the unexpected death of George’s close friend and conservation partner Ron Sauey.
Imagine taking the public bus across Iran accompanied only by a handful of cards bearing simple phrases in Persian, a short time later walking alone through rain and mud among the rice paddies toward a damgah (duck trap) in order to locate Siberian Cranes – only to be intercepted by stern hunters who didn’t welcome strangers. Yet just at that moment, you might be able to guess which loud calls rose from behind the line of trees and waterfowl traps. But there is an even more satisfying question – who else but George would walk into such a situation? This volume gives instance after instance of leaps of faith, a tireless search for meaningful action, and the passionate readiness to leap for opportunity… to enter China, or Russia to create close friendships that enabled the complexities of 10,000-mile egg shipments to happen during the dark years of the cold war.
Most of the stories come from the early years, when dreaming big depended on taking risks and on the freedom to follow creativity. George has always offered hope, his time, and his encouragement to helping others – young men and women – live their own versions of dream and action. Ultimately, George has succeeded through the trust we have all afforded him for his immense caring, for the cranes certainly, and for all of us.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
About the author
George Archibald
6 books1 followerDr. George William Archibald is a Canadian ornithologist. He co-founded the International Crane Foundation, and was the inaugural winner of the 2006 Indianapolis Prize.
Archibald was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada to Donald Edison and Annie Letitia ("Lettie") (née MacLeod) Archibald. He received his bachelor's degree from Dalhousie University in 1968 and his doctorate in 1975 from Cornell University. He married Kyoko Matsumoto on 15 August 1981.
Archibald was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada to Donald Edison and Annie Letitia ("Lettie") (née MacLeod) Archibald. He received his bachelor's degree from Dalhousie University in 1968 and his doctorate in 1975 from Cornell University. He married Kyoko Matsumoto on 15 August 1981.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 4, 2017
Beautiful book, a perfect gift idea for birders, and one I think I'll need to buy for myself.
I visited the International Crane Foundation years ago, but after reading this, I must go back. I'll certainly appreciate it more after reading about its history and worldwide partnerships, as well as reading about the adventures of one of its founders.
George Archibald's conservation efforts exemplify such optimism and tenacity, I couldn't help but be inspired by his stories. His life's work shows people truly can make a difference in the world.
The book is filled with photos, but my favorite is the cover photo of Archibald dancing with a crane. I smile every time I look at it.
Wonderful book. Highly recommended.
I visited the International Crane Foundation years ago, but after reading this, I must go back. I'll certainly appreciate it more after reading about its history and worldwide partnerships, as well as reading about the adventures of one of its founders.
George Archibald's conservation efforts exemplify such optimism and tenacity, I couldn't help but be inspired by his stories. His life's work shows people truly can make a difference in the world.
The book is filled with photos, but my favorite is the cover photo of Archibald dancing with a crane. I smile every time I look at it.
Wonderful book. Highly recommended.
September 19, 2024
2022 featured my return to zoos (a childhood fascination of mine), but 2024 has been about my return to animals. I've started reading studies and other scientific papers about the animal kingdom and have visited more zoos than I have since 2020 combined, and I'm enjoying pretty much every second of it, even though it's been shoehorning another interest into an already packed year and summer. About a month ago, I found my way to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI and ended up having an awesome time there. It's an extremely well kept up facility which displays its fifteen species of cranes in unique and memorable ways; aside from our tour guide, I only have good things to say about it. Hence, I had to get something from its highly thematic gift shop - luckily, they had a book penned by one of the founders of the ICF, George Archibald. It's self-published and a little chintzy, but when read in context it's full of heart and pretty recommendable.
*My Life with Cranes* starts at an easy place to start: Archibald's place of birth (Nova Scotia) and his early childhood growing up with five siblings and keeping birds like peafowl, which were eventually given away when he decided to go to Halifax for medical school. He still loved working with birds, though; during spent his first few summers of school he worked on estates/game farms raising and managing birds from ducks to cranes. But birds remained a hobby until he went to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for fun and had a conversation with Professor William Digler, who promptly convinced him to come to Cornell to study ornithology - through cranes, of course. He arrived penniless but ended up getting a college job as a Cornell research assistant and started working on a project to collect specimens of all the different kinds of cranes and keep them in captivity near each other to study their behavior. He had to appropriate some specimens from different collections, but before long he had his crane complex up and running with thirteen of the fifteen species present. It had to be shut down by 1971, but then George met Ron Sauey, who started his graduate studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology right as Archibald was ending his. They volunteered for some bird-census taking one day and started talking about how nice it would be if there was an international center akin to Archibald's recently dismantled research lab where every species of crane could be kept and studied; Sauey remembered the large, empty Wisconsin property that his parents owned, and the ICF was born.
Up until this point - a sliver of the way into the book - things were linear. After here, we continue more or less linearly, but without the connective tissue of the growth of the ICF. We do get to hear some things about the Foundation - like how a disease wiped out part of their population, or how Archibald's eventual wife was originally a volunteer there - but Archibald spends most of this time recalling his various expeditions into the field rather than where different parts of their collection came from. This is still good an interesting - we hear about his journey into the Korean DMZ, various hunts for and studies of Siberian cranes that ended in taking their eggs onto an airplane, and more. The list of his passport uses towards the end of the book would give any given seasoned traveler's a run for their money. One of the larger stories told is that of Tex, a female whooping crane (i.e. highly endangered) who had bonded to humans and wouldn't mate with members of her own species. So Archibald spent a small chunk of his life living in a shack with Tex, dancing with her, and trying to get her to lay an artificially-inseminated egg so her genes wouldn't be lost. You read that right - he more-or-less mated with a crane. I'd seen the evidence at the Foundation, but that didn't make it more reasonable...
I must say this before I say all the good, glowing things: I thought this was going to be more about the Foundation and the nitty-gritty about its growth and the separation between its zoological-institution and the breeding facilities, so at first glance, I was a bit disappointed, but at the end of the day, that's not what Archibald was here to teach us about; he was here to teach us about himself and his world of travelling that he must be looking back upon finely right about now. And that's why, even though this wasn't what I was looking for, it was still a good and worthwhile and heartening read. It felt... special. Authoritative. And Archibald isn't a bad writer (and neither are his copywriters); I didn't spot the kind of spelling or grammar mistakes that self-pub-ish books like this are often fraught with. The paragraph spacing and some of the physical layout was a bit weird, but the frequent pictures knocked things out of the park. There were full-color photographs, old black-and-white sketches, and maps all over the place, and having all the pretty birds (or considerably less-pretty people) to look at really enhanced Archibald's personality and the resonance of the stories he told. That was definitely a good call on the team's part. One other complaint I can lodge is that... this book could've been longer! More stories, more ICF nitty-gritty, more crane knowledge... it all would've been welcome, to me. But maybe it would've been cost-prohibitive, or maybe this is just the best distillation of what Archibald really wanted to put out into the world. Either way, who am I to argue?
I mostly rate mass-published work and I have to put this in the same matrix, which sounds unfortunate, but it still gets an 8/10. It connected with me (especially the early, linear parts) more than most biographies, and the lifetime worth of working with birds in the wild did help sell things. It's not without its flaws, but it's also definitely not without its heart. I don't know how much you'll get out of this if you haven't visited the International Crane Foundation, but if you like cranes or find yourself wanting some more contemporary naturalist biographies - check this out, and I doubt you'll regret it.
*My Life with Cranes* starts at an easy place to start: Archibald's place of birth (Nova Scotia) and his early childhood growing up with five siblings and keeping birds like peafowl, which were eventually given away when he decided to go to Halifax for medical school. He still loved working with birds, though; during spent his first few summers of school he worked on estates/game farms raising and managing birds from ducks to cranes. But birds remained a hobby until he went to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for fun and had a conversation with Professor William Digler, who promptly convinced him to come to Cornell to study ornithology - through cranes, of course. He arrived penniless but ended up getting a college job as a Cornell research assistant and started working on a project to collect specimens of all the different kinds of cranes and keep them in captivity near each other to study their behavior. He had to appropriate some specimens from different collections, but before long he had his crane complex up and running with thirteen of the fifteen species present. It had to be shut down by 1971, but then George met Ron Sauey, who started his graduate studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology right as Archibald was ending his. They volunteered for some bird-census taking one day and started talking about how nice it would be if there was an international center akin to Archibald's recently dismantled research lab where every species of crane could be kept and studied; Sauey remembered the large, empty Wisconsin property that his parents owned, and the ICF was born.
Up until this point - a sliver of the way into the book - things were linear. After here, we continue more or less linearly, but without the connective tissue of the growth of the ICF. We do get to hear some things about the Foundation - like how a disease wiped out part of their population, or how Archibald's eventual wife was originally a volunteer there - but Archibald spends most of this time recalling his various expeditions into the field rather than where different parts of their collection came from. This is still good an interesting - we hear about his journey into the Korean DMZ, various hunts for and studies of Siberian cranes that ended in taking their eggs onto an airplane, and more. The list of his passport uses towards the end of the book would give any given seasoned traveler's a run for their money. One of the larger stories told is that of Tex, a female whooping crane (i.e. highly endangered) who had bonded to humans and wouldn't mate with members of her own species. So Archibald spent a small chunk of his life living in a shack with Tex, dancing with her, and trying to get her to lay an artificially-inseminated egg so her genes wouldn't be lost. You read that right - he more-or-less mated with a crane. I'd seen the evidence at the Foundation, but that didn't make it more reasonable...
I must say this before I say all the good, glowing things: I thought this was going to be more about the Foundation and the nitty-gritty about its growth and the separation between its zoological-institution and the breeding facilities, so at first glance, I was a bit disappointed, but at the end of the day, that's not what Archibald was here to teach us about; he was here to teach us about himself and his world of travelling that he must be looking back upon finely right about now. And that's why, even though this wasn't what I was looking for, it was still a good and worthwhile and heartening read. It felt... special. Authoritative. And Archibald isn't a bad writer (and neither are his copywriters); I didn't spot the kind of spelling or grammar mistakes that self-pub-ish books like this are often fraught with. The paragraph spacing and some of the physical layout was a bit weird, but the frequent pictures knocked things out of the park. There were full-color photographs, old black-and-white sketches, and maps all over the place, and having all the pretty birds (or considerably less-pretty people) to look at really enhanced Archibald's personality and the resonance of the stories he told. That was definitely a good call on the team's part. One other complaint I can lodge is that... this book could've been longer! More stories, more ICF nitty-gritty, more crane knowledge... it all would've been welcome, to me. But maybe it would've been cost-prohibitive, or maybe this is just the best distillation of what Archibald really wanted to put out into the world. Either way, who am I to argue?
I mostly rate mass-published work and I have to put this in the same matrix, which sounds unfortunate, but it still gets an 8/10. It connected with me (especially the early, linear parts) more than most biographies, and the lifetime worth of working with birds in the wild did help sell things. It's not without its flaws, but it's also definitely not without its heart. I don't know how much you'll get out of this if you haven't visited the International Crane Foundation, but if you like cranes or find yourself wanting some more contemporary naturalist biographies - check this out, and I doubt you'll regret it.
March 19, 2019
His life is so inspiring, and I really liked this book. I wish it had touched on the costume rearing and ultralight migration training I heard him talk about at the AZA conference, but he has done so much that it must've been hard to choose what to include. I wish it had been longer. The cover photograph is the most magical capture, and I loved the title.
November 18, 2025
What a delightful and fascinating set of stories. I am deeply inspired by George Archibald’s contributions to conservation across the world. He devoted his life to all aspects of the work, from the dangerous gritty work to the high-brow rubbing of elbows to secure funds. Thank you for your priceless achievements George!
April 24, 2021
An accomplished life for sure. How can one person do so much? This was a very short read at about 150 pages and the book is full of great color photos. It is short though, I wanted to know so much more, this is just a small taste of his accomplishments and adventures. This man's life really needs at least a full length book or several volumes! He has built a great organization that does important, impactful work-I just started working for International Crane Foundation about two months ago and you wouldn't believe the passionate people around the world that are on the team. The organization gets an incredible amount of work done and this book is the origin story.
March 14, 2026
This book consists of a series of anecdotes from the life of the founder of the International Crane Foundation (ICF). They provide a short biographical sketch, followed by some information about the founding of ICF, and tales from the field. They include the requisite name dropping of ornithologists, donors and supporters, and famous people. They’re the type of tale you’d hear at a cocktail party or fundraising presentation. They skim the surface, but lack any depth. Anyone seeking information on cranes, and the trials, travails and tribulations involved in conducting research on them needs to look elsewhere.
June 23, 2020
Having lived in Baraboo and worked in the conservation community for many years, I have definitely taken for granted just how legendary some of the people in that world are. George Archibald's stories of his adventures around the world that helped build the International Crane Foundation are fascinating, delightful, and downright impressive. I've discovered a new appreciation for just how special an organization ICF really is, and what an inspiring leader George Archibald has been and continues to be in the global conservation community.
January 10, 2024
The International Crane Foundation is an incredible gem in Baraboo, Wisconsin, visit if you have the chance. This book is written by the founder and crane expert, George Archibald. His dedication to saving cranes across the globe is inspiring and incredible, his stories demonstrate the way people work together for crane and bird conservation despite and in spite of international relations. He is a marvel of energetic foundational belief that cranes and birds are worth studying and saving. I have a new hero.
December 2, 2016
We have so much information at our fingertips these days that we sometimes forget all the work, research, and adventure that goes into accumulating the knowledge. Dr. Archibald has some remarkable stories collected from his years of worldwide travels and his studies of the 15 species of cranes. I've visited the International Crane Foundation many times, but never knew that much about the founder, so I am delighted by these accounts!
August 14, 2018
The writing is a little disjointed, and perhaps a good editor could have cleaned up the timelines, but this memoir by one of the founders of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, was fascinating. The passion the author shows for conservation and his love for the cranes of the world, as well as other birds, was inspiring. Although the foundation is not too many miles north of my home, I have never been there. I need to make a visit soon!
September 11, 2021
Excellently written and interesting stories about the International Crane Foundation. After my visit there in Baraboo, WI this week, I enjoyed learning more about the history of how George and Ron invented this out of thin air. Just the listing of George's passport destinations over the past 30 years is overwhelming! Cranes were and are definitely worth saving! Thank you to everyone involved in this environmental miracle
April 27, 2022
Met with author at a garden show in Madison wisconsin. He is as humble and gracious as his book. His ability to empower others to be their best with the purest of motives, protect the cranes of the world. Their gift to humanity and the environment is priceless.
September 28, 2025
Honestly, my biggest complaint about this book was that it left me wanting more. I felt like he could have elaborated on so many stories. I also wish there had been a timeline included. He tried to keep stories about specific species together, but I was getting confused about the dates and timing.
July 9, 2018
Love the cranes, the man, love the stories, love the book. Thank you George for the love of the birds, for the work with the cranes, for writing it down.
December 18, 2024
This book was so much more interesting than I thought it would be. Dragged at the end but I'm not particularly a bird person so it was to be expected
February 1, 2026
Dr. Archibald’s stories and passion for cranes (and their habitats, along with the people who care for both) - was a joy to read about. Can’t wait for my next visit to the ICF.
June 3, 2017
Excellent!!!!!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews