It can be a volatile situation when two members of a relationship work in the same place, but Chris Crowe has made it work.
Crowe is a zookeeper at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, where his girlfriend resides. Yes...resides.
Crowe has been in a "relationship" with Walnut, a white-naped crane, for the past 14 years.
Multiple zoos had trouble finding a suitable mate for Walnut in order to reproduce, but with no luck. She was sent to the Smithsonian because they do artificial insemination, and that's when the bond began.
Crowe told People, "We both came here the same year, 2004. She was here a month before I was. I was assigned to be the primary crane keeper, five out of every seven days … I would take care of her every day, five days a week."
Eventually, Walnut came to choose Crowe as her "mate for life." He recalled, "When she started warming up to me, she would do some of the crane courtship [rituals] which involve running around with the wings flapping, bobbing her head, jumping up and down, flapping her wings, and picking up crumbs or grass or flowers and tossing them in the air and catching them. When I recognized what she was doing, I did my best to imitate it. If I saw her bobbing her head, I started bobbing my head. If she was flapping her wings at me, I’d flap my arms as if they were wings. I’m sure I wasn’t doing it right for her, but she compromised, or put up with it, and it seemed to help us bond."
After all these years, Crowe does feel responsible for Walnut. He says, "[Cranes] mate for life, so I joke it gives me job security. But it would be hard for me to leave, too. As long as she’s here I’ll be the one taking care of her."
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