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South Africa, Our Burning Planet

The enigmatic journey of cranes: Nature's majestic messengers and their struggle for survival

The enigmatic journey of cranes: Nature's majestic messengers and their struggle for survival
Crane species and population counts. Source: IUCN)
Don Pinnock
By Don Pinnock
26 Mar 2025
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For thousands of years the beauty of cranes has captured our attention, and their migration provoked our imagination. In a world of increasing threats to their future, these extraordinary birds have won champions who fight for their survival.

On a trip from Cape Town to Cairo, adventure guide Mike Copeland and I were cooling off under a palm tree alongside the Nile when the light suddenly dimmed. Given that there wasn’t a cloud in the desert-heated sky it was spooky. Then we heard the sound, a continuous clarion kraa-kree overhead and looked up in astonishment. 

At a considerable height were maybe hundreds of thousands of demoiselle cranes using the river as a guide in their annual migration from Central Asia, China, Turkey and Europe into Africa. To get to Egypt, many would have flown clean over the Himalayas. So many, so high, on graceful wings and in constant conversation — they seemed like a flight of angels.

After about 10 minutes they were gone, heading for a stopover in the Sudd, the Nile’s vast swampland further south, leaving the sky silent and emptier yet somehow more full of wonder. 

My first personal meeting with a crane was a few years later at a sanctuary near Game Pass Shelter in the northern Drakensberg. She had a velvet-black forehead framed in white, a golden crown and a flowing body etched in black, white, red and yellow. Her long legs were made for dancing.

As I stepped into her enclosure she raised her wings so I raised my arms. She hopped so I hopped and so began a dance that would start a love affair with these amazing birds.

In his book The Birds of Heaven, nature writer Peter Matthiessen says: “These elegant birds, in their stature, grace and beauty, their wild fierce temperament, are striking metaphors for the vanishing wilderness of our once beautiful earth.”

Throughout human history cranes — all 15 species of them — have been seen as enigmatic symbols shimmering with portent, the world’s strongest long-distance high flyers, some standing over 1.5 metres tall with 2.4-metre wingspans. 

The altitude of their migrations, disappearing from the sight of earthbound mortals, may account for their near-sacred place in the earliest legends as messengers and harbingers of highest heaven. Aesop extols their ability to “rise above the clouds into endless space and survey the wonders of the heavens”. Homer and Aristotle comment on their great migrations. In a Cree legend, a crane carries Rabbit to the moon.

In every land since ancient times they have represented longevity and good fortune, harmony and fidelity. In Japanese culture the paper crane is a symbol of hope, peace and longevity. It’s believed that folding 1,000 cranes grants a wish.

Global flyways


Cranes use environmental cues such as vegetation cover, temperature and water bodies to navigate their complex migration routes along three primary global flyways: the Americas, African-Eurasian and East Asian-Australasian.

The African-Eurasian flyway is used by many aerial migrants but is particularly significant for cranes. It spans Greenland and Europe through western Russia, central and southern Asia and into Africa. This flyway is crucial for species that breed in Europe and migrate to wintering grounds in Africa and southern Europe. Cranes often complete their first migrations with their parents, learning these routes early in life.

Crane Flyways. (Source: International Crane Foundation)



In Europe, cranes use several regional migration routes. Those breeding in Scandinavia and central Europe often follow the western European flyway to France and Spain, while those in eastern Europe may use the Baltic-Hungarian flyway to reach northern Africa via Italy. Some cranes from eastern Europe and western Russia migrate across the Black Sea and Turkey to Israel and East Africa.

European migration routes. (Source: Nabu Crane Centre)



Migration poses significant challenges, including habitat loss, power line collisions, electrocution and hunting in some countries. Cranes can be subject to poisoning by farmers who blame them for grain crop losses, or through secondary non-targeted poisoning. Their dependence on wetlands and grasslands makes them susceptible to habitat loss and fragmentation. 

Tragically they are among the most threatened large terrestrial birds in Africa. But their charisma has earned them fierce defenders, dedicated people from global and local NGOs who fight for their survival.

Success story


For the past 32 years, a partnership between the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and the International Crane Foundation (ICF) has been working with farmers and landowners to support them and help them protect breeding sites. They have been working with Eskom to reduce powerline fatalities and conducting research about the species movement. 

Wattled crane stamp. (Image: Supplied)



In a 2015 survey only 267 wattled cranes were recorded in KwaZulu-Natal, their primary habitat. The latest count in the area is 304, which means they’re not declining. The global population of wattled cranes is estimated to be about 8,000 to 9,600 individuals, with most found in the South-central floodplains of Botswana and Zambia. 

Each year the NGOs, together with Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, and supported by Eskom conducts an aerial census of three crane species, the grey crowned, blue and wattled, all threatened populations. The results are encouraging: there’s been a steady increase in the population size of all three species in KwaZulu-Natal. 

Globally, however, the population of cranes is declining. For this reason, say the Endangered Wildlife Trust and International Crane Foundation, urgent conservation attention is needed to safeguard populations outside of KwaZulu-Natal. 

Wattled cranes are the largest species and can live up to 40 years. Like grey crowned cranes they depend on wetlands where they nest and find their preferred food such as snails, fish and frogs, though they will also seek out grain, seeds and insects. 

During breeding they’re highly territorial, defending an area of about a square kilometre. Being wetland birds, they’re susceptible to water pollution, reedbed fires, draining or damming of swamps, spread of invasive plants, trampling by livestock and being hunted as food.

Blue cranes. (Photo: Jacquie van der Westhuizen.)



Wattled cranes. (Photo: Jacquie van der Westhuizen)



Wattled cranes mate for life. (Photo: Jacquie van der Westhuizen )



Over a cup of coffee earned after a crane callout trip, Dr Lara Fuller — who coordinates the African Crane Conservation Programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust — explained how human expansion and land conversion are threatening crane populations, as well as the Endangered Wildlife Trust and International Crane Foundation’s work to offset that. 

“Degraded grasslands lead to soil erosion, affecting wetlands, which in turn impact crane populations. Farmers, landowners and land users have a key role to play here through sustainable land-use practices. 

“Three decades of collaborations and partnerships across the wattled crane core area involving conservation and education efforts has halted or slowed the direct threats to the species.”

Lara began a love affair with cranes while working on a Wattled Crane Recovery programme at Johannesburg Zoo. That led to a PhD on wattled cranes and a lifelong concern for crane conservation. 

Cranes have a way of doing that to you. There’s a reason why the blue crane is South Africa’s national bird, and the grey crowned crane the same in Uganda.

With their elegance, beauty and haunting calls, cranes are captivating to those who encounter them. The migration flight of a hundred thousand demoiselles, and dancing with a grey crested crane took captivating to a whole other level. The Angels of Heaven had secured my veneration. DM

Crane species and population counts. (Source: IUCN)


Crane conservation organisations


Endangered Wildlife Trust

KZN Crane Foundation

International Crane Foundation

IUCN Crane Specialist Group

Wetlands International 

Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife

Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

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