Outlook improves for wattled crane in South Africa

In what’s being hailed as a conservation success, the wattled crane has seen its conservation status in South Africa improve from critically endangered to endangered.

Globally, the wattled crane (Bugeranus carunculatus) is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with an estimated population of 6,000 mature individuals in the wild as of a 2018 assessment.

In South Africa, the cranes were once widespread, according to the South Africa-based nonprofit KZN Crane Foundation, but between the 1970 and 2000, their population fell to fewer than 200 birds, making the species critically endangered in the country.

“Today their population has increased to above 250 mature individuals and it is continuing to increase, so it is now listed as Endangered,” Christie Craig, conservation scientist at the International Crane Foundation (ICF), told Mongabay by email.

In a press release, the ICF said that in 2015, researchers had recorded about 267 individuals in an aerial survey mostly covering the province of KwaZulu-Natal, considered a stronghold for the species in the country. In 2024, the survey estimated 304 individuals. However, the ICF cautioned in its statement that “despite this positive trend in KwaZulu-Natal, the global population (including, but not limited to, South Africa) remains on the decline and urgent conservation attention is required to safeguard populations outside of KwaZulu-Natal.”

Of Africa’s crane species, the wattled crane is the most “wetland dependent,” relying largely on intact wetlands and floodplain habitats and grasslands for its feeding, roosting and nesting, studies show.

“The main threat they faced and the cause of their decline in the past is loss and deterioration of wetlands through intensified agriculture, afforestation, dam construction, alien plant infestation and draining,” Craig said.

The cranes also sometimes collide with power lines located in their habitats.

In 1994, several organizations, including the ICF, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife (EKZNW) and other NGOs, began efforts to protect the cranes.

These included working with national electricity utility Eskom to reduce fatalities along power lines, such as by attaching markers to the lines and making structural changes electricity poles to prevent electrocution. The organizations also work with farmers and landowners to protect cranes present on their farms, since wattled cranes’ wetland habitats often overlap with farms and the birds often end up breeding there.

Researchers are also using technologies such as transmitters to track the movement patterns of the cranes, and drones to map wetlands.

“This information will be vital to rehabilitating wetlands to expand the habitat utilized by these unique birds, enabling the species to expand outside its current range,” the ICF said in its statement.

Its stewardship program with farmers will be supported by long-term funding made possible by carbon trading in the grassland habitat of the wattled crane.

Banner image of an adult wattled crane and its chick, courtesy of Daniel Dolpire/International Crane Foundation.