USF Special Collection’s Florida Environment & Natural History meta-collection is devoted to telling the stories of Florida’s unique natural resources through the documents and experiences of the people who knew it best, like ornithologist Robert Porter Allen. 

The Robert Porter Allen collection details his efforts to address the plight of bird populations in Florida and surrounding areas through photographs, notebooks, letters, and maps. One of his most endearing ventures involved saving the near-extinct whooping crane. As the cranes appeared unfazed by nearby cattle, Allen crafted a canvas cow and hid inside it to study the whooping cranes’ plumage and behavior up-close.

LIFE magazine learned of Allen’s ingenuity and sent reporters to document the progress. The photographer “waited four full days inside [the] fake cow” but was rewarded with one of the best photographs of a whooping crane family at the time. Thereafter, baiting the cranes with corn proved more practical…