Entabeni Communications is proud to announce the historic hatching of two Wattled Crane chicks at their captive care facility located on the Hlatikulu Crane and Wetland Sanctuary in the vicinity of Giants Castle.

Wattle Cranes are critically endangered with only approximately 250 individuals left in the wild, almost all of them in KwaZulu-Natal. Their continued survival as a species is dependent on a captive breeding and re-introduction programme known as the Wattled Crane Recovery Programme (WCRP).

Wattled Crane parents, Elvi (female) and Amanzi (male – whose name means “water” in Zulu) who have been together since January, laid two eggs in mid-August. Observations of the pair revealed both birds were consistently incubating and tending the eggs.

The first egg hatched on September 15 and the chick was named “Blake.”

When the pair stopped incubating the second egg to devote full care to their chick, the egg was removed and temporarily placed under a broody hen named “Peach” for safe keeping until an incubator could be readied. The egg was later placed in the incubator and it hatched on September 17. This chick named “Trinity” is being hand-reared by Entabeni staff with the help of Ann Burke from the KZN Crane Foundation.

Lara Jordon, Co-ordinator of the WCRP said, “We are thrilled by Entabeni’s landmark accomplishment. Since the inception of the WCRP in 2000, only one egg has been produced by naturally fertile captive birds. This is the first time in the history of South Africa that a captive pair of Wattled Cranes have hatched and reared their own chick. Wattled Cranes are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity and Entabeni’s years of concerted efforts to breed this critically endangered species has finally paid rich.