Chinanews, Harbin, July 2 – Two teachers and their seven students from Minnesota adopted two red-crowned cranes in Zhalong Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang Province, which was the first time ever for foreigners to adopt these rare birds in Zhalong.Zhalong is one of the most important destinations for the migration of red-crowned cranes. At present, there are only 1,000 red-crowned cranes or so in China. Every year about 300 or 400 of them come here to spend the summer. Besides, the biggest artificial crane breeding center is also in Zhalong, with some 600 cranes having been bred.“They were deeply impressed by the elegance and beauty of red-crowned cranes during their trip to Zhalong, thus they have decided to adopt two of them,” said Wang Wenfeng, deputy director of Zhalong Nature Reserve Administration, while talking about the adoption of the cranes by the nine Americans.The Administration is responsible for emailing the latest developments and photos of the two cranes to the US.Since 2005, 24 red-crowned cranes have been adopted.