South Africa’s national bird, the blue crane, is increasingly ending up as a feature in someone’s back garden instead of in its natural habitat.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust warned this week that the blue crane is under threat because of a spike in smuggling. The bird is also poached for the pot. With the Cape parrot, blue cranes are the most likely South African bird to be smuggled.
The trust said many unsuspecting people become involved in illegal trade, as they find birds quite readily available from unscrupulous poachers and smugglers. People who keep cranes in private gardens or shopping centres create the demand for the bird. This, the trust said, puts pressure on the wild populations.
The trust has rescued nine birds in the past two weeks. The nine cranes were confiscated after four separate incidences of illegal removal from the wild in their Karoo habitat.
In addition, the Weekend Post reported that two cranes, which were likely caught for a meal, were saved by a trucker who spotted them in the hands of a group of children on the side of the road in the Murraysburg area, whereas two others, which were probably caught for their aesthetic value, were confiscated from a Kragga Kamma property.
The cranes are now being rehabilitated by wildlife rehabilitation group Wildline. The Endangered Wildlife Trust hopes that stiffer penalties, which begin in September, will help to stop the rampant poaching.
The law provides for imprisonment for a maximum period of five years and a fine of R5-million. If you are convicted a second time the fine can increase to R10-million and the jail time to 10 years.
Smugglers of ten use legally owned blue crane pairs as a front to move illegally captured chicks. A legal pair of blue cranes is kept and crane chicks are illegally removed from the wild and sold under the premise that the legal pair reproduced the chicks in question.
‘Sadly, this is likely just the tip of the iceberg, with many more having been taken illegally,” said Kerryn Morrison, manager of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s African crane conservation programme.
‘People often don’t realise that one needs a permit to trade in and own cranes. It is illegal to take cranes out of the wild.”
The blue crane is near endemic to South Africa and is classified as vulnerable. There are only about 25 000 birds left in the world, mostly in South Africa. The Karoo boasts the biggest population, about 6 000 to 8 000 birds, and that is where most of the poaching takes place.
The national bird hit a crisis in the 1980s and 1990s when its population plummeted, but Morrison said the population has stabilised in the past few years, thanks to a strong conservation drive from the Overberg crane group and Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife parks.
‘In the past two decades these organisations have worked closely with landowners in the major crane regions, helping them to find viable solutions to the crop damage that cranes sometimes cause without killing or disturbing the birds,” said Morrison.
‘Today farmers use agrochemicals more responsibly than they did in the past and are far more tolerant of cranes living on their properties.”
But new research done by the trust shows that the blue crane’s population remains on a ‘knife edge”. The trust said an increase in mortality rates could once again swing the population into a steady decline.
Morrison said its charismatic stature, elaborate dances and that it is easily recognisable are reasons for this crane being sought for captivity. She said anyone who wants to keep cranes should consider his or her decision carefully.
The cranes must be legally acquired and one must ensure that their purchase will not contribute to the demise of the blue crane population in the country.
‘Ask relevant questions about the origin of the cranes to be bought and ask for parentage testing to ensure the birds you buy are actually the chicks of the pair in question,” she said. ‘It is vital that relevant provincial permits are obtained.”
Apart from smuggl ing, blue cranes also get tangled in power lines, but the Endangered Wildlife Trust has an energy programme through which it attempts to make power lines more visible to large flying birds. This has seen a 60% reduction in bird collisions with power lines in the past decade.