NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The COVID-19 pandemic is drastically reducing the number of young whooping cranes to be released this fall to help bring back the world's rarest cranes. Zoos and other places where the endangered birds are bred have had to cut not only staff size but use of two techniques to boost the birds' numbers: artificial insemination and hand-rearing -- or, rather, costume-rearing -- chicks.

Whooping cranes are North America's tallest birds, 5 feet (1.5 meters) high from their black feet to the little red caps on their heads. They're white with black tips on wings spanning 7 feet (2.1...