Captured as chickens and kept as a status symbol pets in the gardens of hotels and private homes, the birds were almost wiped out. The destruction of their habitat for agriculture added to the pressure and by 2012, only about 300 remained in the wild.
Gray crowned cranes dance together as part of their mating ritual and often mate for life.
But the species has suffered a remarkable recovery in Rwanda thanks to local veterinarian and conservative Olivier Nsengimana. Living in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, Nsengimana had found it strange to hear cranes calling from people’s gardens, while wild habitats were almost devoid of birds. “I told myself that someone has to do something about it,” he says. “Someone has to make a change.”
Gray crowned cranes are still endangered in other parts of Africa. Nsengimana says there is no “copy and paste” solution for all countries, but lessons can be learned from Rwanda’s success.
An amnesty
The majestic cranes are seen as “a symbol of wealth and longevity” in Rwanda, says Nsengimana. “People love them so much, but the (lack of) awareness is like too much love … it created a threat.” Taking cranes in the wild is illegal in Rwanda, but many pet owners did not know they were breaking the law.
In 2014, Nsengimana worked with the Rwandan government to launch an amnesty program that encourages owners to surrender their pets without fear of prosecution. He relayed the message to national radio, asking pet owners to call his personal phone number. “I said, I know you love them too, we all love them, but if we keep them in our gardens … we will lose them.”
Crane owners across the country responded.
Since 2014, 242 gray-crowned cranes have been successfully rescued from captivity, says Nsengimana.
Last year, a census identified 881 gray-crowned cranes in Rwanda, Nsengimana says. He is “quite confident” that there are no more cranes in captivity in the country.
“This is truly a huge success story that we share with all Rwandans,” he says. “If we work together, if we can bring everyone on board, we can achieve what cannot be achieved.”
The future for Rwanda’s gray-crowned cranes looks much safer, but can Nsengimana’s success be replicated elsewhere in Africa?
International trade in cranes
It is illegal to catch and sell gray-crowned cranes for most of their range, according to Kerryn Morrison, director for Africa at the International Crane Foundation and senior manager for Africa at the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
But legal protection did not save the birds.
Across Africa, crowned crane populations are estimated to have fallen by up to 80 percent in the past 25 years, leaving only about 25,000 to 30,000 birds, according to Morrison.
Gray-crowned cranes are kept as pets throughout the continent, says Morrison. Law enforcement is often weak due to lack of resources and a greater emphasis on protecting larger animals, such as elephants and rhinos, she says.
Morrison says demand in the United Arab Emirates has slowed in recent years, but the country appears to remain a pipeline for cranes, supplying them to the Middle East and Asia.
Unfortunately, Morrison says Rwanda’s amnesty model is unlikely to work in other African countries. “You just don’t see the same adherence to government policies as you do in Rwanda,” she says. However, raising awareness with local communities in Uganda and Kenya and training them to monitor cranes has led to some success in reducing poaching.
Nsengimana says that although cranes are not migratory, they travel across borders and it will take a “huge” joint effort to remove them from the endangered species list.
“When I was little, I saw cranes that coexisted with people and … I would really like to get that kind of balance back,” says Nsengimana. “We want people to see cranes as part of themselves, as friends, as part of their lives.”