Leonardo DiCaprio Instagram – Repost from @nytimes To prevent the extinction of the northern bald ibis, Johannes Fritz came up with a plan — and learned to fly. To survive the European winter, the northern bald ibis — which had once disappeared entirely from the wild on the continent — needs to migrate south for the winter, over the Alps, before the mountains become impassable. Fritz, an Austrian biologist, has spent his career reintroducing the birds into the wild, and an essential part of their education has been teaching the young the migration path they will follow as adults. He modified an ultralight aircraft so it would cruise at speeds slow enough for his winged students to keep up. In 2004, three years after some initially bumpy experiments, Fritz led the first flock from Austria to Italy, and has since led 15 such migrations. Over that time, he has rewilded 277 young ibises, many of which then started to pass the route on to their own young. However, the route Fritz originally taught the ibises is no longer viable. With climate change warming the area where the birds summer — by Lake Constance in Germany and Austria — they now start their migration at the end of October instead of the end of September, as they had done just a decade ago. They are now reaching the mountains too late to make it over the peaks, locking them in an icy death trap. Photos by @ninareeg