Siberian Cranes Engender Cornell Friendships
Our friendship began in the spring of 1977 when Ted, then US Ambassador to Afghanistan, helped Ron Sauey, co-founder with George of the International Crane Foundation, find the stopping point in Afghanistan of a flock of Siberian Cranes migrating from northern India to northern Siberia. The friendship has been renewed many times since 1977, most recently when George discovered a Siberian Crane and told Ted where to find it at the Gun Gaalut Reserve east of Ulaanbaater in June, 2012. We met at our ger (yurt) camp on the first night of George’s trip to eastern Mongolia and the last night of a two-week trip Ted was taking in the same area where he had not yet found any Siberian Cranes.
Since my first visit in 1976 to what I consider to be the world’s most beautiful bird park, Weltvogelpark, it has always been my favorite destination in Europe. It’s located in the countryside not far from Hanover in northwest Germany. It’s former owners, Wolf and Uschi Brehm, became close friends, provided financial support to ICF during those early lean years, and loaned two elderly male Siberian Cranes to ICF. 
A long flight from Seoul to Moscow landed me in Russia October 5, 2011 to spend 12 days with nearly 90 colleagues from 15 nations. Eight nations were former republics of the USSR. We had gathered in Volgograd just north of the Caspian Sea for an international conference “Cranes of the Palearctic: Biology, Conservation, Management (in Memory of P. S. Pallas).”