'Super exciting': Calgary zoo's whooping crane lays first-ever fertile egg

Calgary zookeepers are excited after a whooping crane named Helsinki recently laid her first-ever fertile egg, expected to hatch in early May.

Val Edwards lives among the endangered birds in a little house on a hill at the Calgary Zoo's Wildlife Conservation Centre near De Winton, Alta.

Speaking to the Calgary Eyeopener Tuesday, Edwards said Helsinki the whooping crane has had a tumultuous love life.

"She was originally paired with a male named Wallace and they were quite friendly with each other, they got along really well," Edwards said.

The birds were together for about four years.

"But alas, nothing else happened," Edwards said. "They just lived together, so kind of in the friend zone, or roommates really."

Helsinki meets Hercules

Zookeepers decided to separate Helsinki and Wallace, and pair Helsinki with a new male, named Hercules.

"He was a much bolder, braver male. He came from our display at the zoo," Edwards said. "He was a nice, strong male, and it seemed like Helsinki really liked that."

About a year later, Helsinki started laying eggs. She laid her first-ever fertile egg earlier this month, and is sitting on three more.

In the next week or so, zookeepers will determine if any other eggs are fertile. When the eggs are nine or 10 days old, they willput a bright light on them tosee inside and look for a developingembryo.

It takes about 28 to 32 days for anegg to hatch.

Baby whooping cranes are "very cute," according to Edwards.They look similar to a baby chicken but grow very quickly, she said, and require lots of exercise early on to develop into the gangly creatures they become.

What about Wallace?

Helsinki'sfertile egg is "super exciting," Edwards said, because whooping cranes once numbered just 20 birds in the wild.

"With this captive breeding, so that is trying to find right males for right females, sometimes artificially inseminating them to achieve that genetic fit, we're now up to 600, about 450 or so in the wild, about 150 in captivity," she said.

And what ever happened to Wallace, Helsinki's potential partner-turned-roommate?

"We all feel bad for Wallace too, but don't fret too much," Edwards said.

"He actually got paired as well with a female named Ruby and he is now on display."

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener