One of the most endangered species of crane in the world has hatched for the first time at the National Zoo’s research facility in Virginia.

       And it had quite a journey to get here.

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       The “thriving” baby whooping crane arrived May 26 at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, zoo officials said in a statement Friday. The bird team at the facility had taken its egg “under their wing” the week before, officials said, after the International Crane Foundation and Necedah National Wildlife Refuge staff in Wisconsin found it “abandoned in a wild nest.”

       Without biological parents to care for the egg, surrogates — Tehya, a 16-year-old female whooping crane, and Goliath, a 25-year-old male — were chosen, zoo officials said.

       The two surrogate parents had successfully raised colts with other mates before they came to the zoo’s facility a few years ago, the zoo’s statement said, and “the wild egg was laid around the same time as the pair’s infertile eggs, so the incubation period aligned.” Whooping cranes breed in the spring, and their eggs take between 30 and 35 days to hatch.

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       The stakes for the Front Royal egg were high, since whooping cranes’ populations have suffered amid the destruction of their habitat, poaching and natural disasters. In 1941, just over 20 whooping cranes were left in the wild, the zoo said. Thanks to conservation efforts, there are now an estimated 700 in the wild and 140 in human care, officials said.

       To get Tehya and Goliath ready for parenthood, officials said, the keepers gave them a fake egg with which to “practice their natural parenting behaviors,” while the real egg was kept in an incubator. Shortly before the egg was about to hatch, “keepers switched the fake egg for the fertile one,” officials said.

       When the colt hatched, both parents cared for it right away, officials said, and are “protective and attentive to its needs.” The colt is being closely monitored, but caretakers are allowing the family to “bond without interference,” the statement said. Caretakers called the colt “healthy, alert and curious about its surroundings.”

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       Whooping crane babies are called colts because they have long legs. They fledge when they’re between 80 and 100 days old, the zoo noted, but typically stick close to their parents’ territories for up to nine months.

       The colt will have its first veterinary exam at 5 weeks of age, zoo officials said, at which point a DNA sample will be taken to determine its sex.