CRANES are among our more spectacular and perhaps more significant of birds. They seem to stand for something other than pure birdhood.
The blue crane is the national bird of South Africa with a history going back to King Shaka, the crowned crane is the symbol of Uganda and appears on its national flag and they have appeared in all the ancient cultures of mankind for thousands of years. They are special.
Cranes are found around the world, except in Antarctica and, strangely, South America. We have three species in South Africa: the blue crane, the crowned crane and the wattled crane.
Particularly special is the wattled crane, of which there are just about 235 individuals left. The wattled crane is one of South Africa’s most endangered birds, in fact one of five Critically Endangered birds, which is what makes the introduction of a dedicated breeding programme in the KZN Midlands so important.
The project is the Wattled Crane Recovery Programme, which actually involves several centres around KZN, basically taking rejected eggs (in the wild the second of two eggs normally laid is abandoned once the first chick has hatched), hatching them and raising the chicks with as little human contact as possible, and the, the biggie, releasing them into the wild. Various organisations are involved, including Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, and it’s all very exciting.
We don’t have wattled cranes down here on the coast, or blue cranes, but we do have crowned cranes. We’ve been lucky enough to see them in the cane fields around Trafalgar, a rare and very exciting ‘tick’.
Having said all that, I must revert to my first paragraph. I remember being invited to the presentation of a pair of blue cranes to King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu some years ago. I later interviewed him over dinner in the royal palace (pardon me, but I just had to mention that), and he told me about the origins of the blue crane symbolism among the Zulu.
It goes right back to King Shaka and a gift from the Basutho people of blue crane tail feathers. Even now, only Zulu royalty may wear blue crane feathers. (I have a blue crane tail feather in my study, but it doesn’t have any royal origins, just a shedding blue crane).
From cranes to beavers. For the first time in some 500 years beavers have been spotted in the English countryside. An unmanned infrared camera has picked up two adult and one young European beaver in the (ironically) River Otter in Devonshire.
No one has any idea how they might have found their way there, although the indications are that they have been there for some time. Anyway, everyone is delighted with the find.* Cheers!
* The Week: the Best of British and the Foreign Media, London.
