Wattled cranes’ innate behavior makes conserving them quite a puzzle. They mate for life, have long gestation and fledging periods, and rear only one egg at a time. If a second egg is produced, the parents often abandon it: raising more than one chick per season just isn’t in their DNA.
Wattled crane populations began to suffer in the 1980s, when agriculture, industrialization, and overgrazing of domestic animals significantly reduced the cranes’ wetland habitat. Much of what remained was located on private land, making it difficult to protect.
In response, the Endangered Wildlife Trust began coordinating conservation efforts among NGOs, forestry departments, governments, zoos, and universities in South Africa. Despite their hard work, by the year 2000 the once-widespread South African population of the species fell to just over 200 birds.
But these groups had gathered a lot of data on the species, and they recognized that the time had come to assess what they knew so they could determine why the population continued to decline. “We needed to step back and grasp the bigger picture of wattled cranes’ historical and current situation,” said Kerryn Morrison of the International Crane Foundation / Endangered Wildlife Trust partnership. “CPSG’s philosophy seemed ideal for helping us come to a common understanding and define a direction for the future.”
To jump-start putting the data to good use, the Endangered Wildlife Trust and its partners invited CPSG to lead a workshop in Wakkerstroom, South Africa, in 2001. Wattled crane experts presented information about the species, gleaned from both published scientific papers and unpublished ongoing research. Using those data, CPSG and a subset of the workshop participants built computer models to predict how wattled cranes would be affected by potential future scenarios. What was the risk of extinction under current conditions? What factors would cause their numbers to grow or shrink?
The projections revealed high-priority issues needing further consideration. Over three days, CPSG led dynamic sessions structured to help the participants expand on their ideas for wattled crane conservation. They discussed overarching concerns in large and small groups, shared their findings, and considered next steps.
They agreed that the way to give wattled cranes their best chance at survival was to ensure no more of their breeding sites were lost, to raise public awareness of the cranes’ plight, and to study little-known aspects of crane biology, compiling what they learned in a place they could all access. And they clarified the purpose of the captive population—to provide a strong, healthy source of birds for reintroduction—which guided their short-term and long-term activities.
Also, they formed several lasting partnerships at the workshop. Notably, four of the organizations (later joined by a fifth) established the Wattled Crane Recovery Programme, a conservation breeding program based on the action plan they had just developed. In addition to fostering the growth of the captive program, a subset of this partnership teamed up to monitor wild wattled cranes in KwaZuluNatal Province, the stronghold of the species in South Africa.
After the CPSG workshop, project collaborators further researched wattled crane habitat and not only slowed the loss of breeding sites but gained protection for several more. Presently, local farmers and landowners assist with researching and monitoring the cranes who live on their properties. All new data go into a central database so everyone can stay up-to-date. Conservationists use the cranes’ breeding biology to the species’ advantage: they rescue doomed second eggs from wild nests and raise them as part of the captive population.
At the time of the workshop, the captive population was struggling along at just 9 birds; it has grown to 44 birds under the new plan. “The models CPSG created have been at the core of every decision we made for developing what has become a very strong captive population,” said Morrison.
The number of wild wattled cranes in South Africa has increased more than 60 percent since the workshop, to about 320. “Wattled cranes have seen a complete turnaround,” said Morrison. “So much so that soon we will no longer need to consider supplementing the wild population with captive-raised birds. The work is far from over, but we’ve made good progress, and the plan we formed with CPSG’s guidance provided us with a solid foundation.
