Cresthed Cranes: The disappearing national bird of Uganda

With its distinctive gold crown, the red throat bag and the slender black legs, Crested Crane is loved in Uganda – including the flag and coat of arms of the East African nation.

All national sports teams in the country have also been called after the emblematic bird, but in recent years it has entered into decline and environmentalists say that it can be confronted with disappearance if it is not done more to protect it.

The bird is protected by law – it provides for a life sentence and/or a fine of $ 20 billion in Ugandan shillings ($ 5 million; £ 4 million) for those found to have killed one.

Going back, Buganda’s local cultural superstition also protected the elegant bird, which is seen as a symbol of wealth, luck and longevity.

It was believed that if a person killed a crane, his relatives and relatives would flow into the home of the killer, watch and grieve, collecting collectively until the man was crazy or even died.

“Similar stories have been instilling fear and cranes will be respected and worshiped and not killed,” Jimmy Muhezha, a senior environmentalist in nature Uganda, a local non -governmental organization (NGO), told the BBC.

But for farmers in Western Uganda, where the cranes are mostly hanging, this fear has become distracted and often environmentalists seem to know about the ban on killing them.

“I really see no value in these birds, because all they do is to recruit our plantations and eat our crops. We are worried about food security in this area,” Tom Mukungi, a farmer of corn from a village near Mbarara in the western region, before the BBC.

Another farmer near Mbarara, Fausita Aritua, agreed, saying that when she goes to her corn plot she spends all day pursuing the cranes – and if she can’t get there, she tries to make someone else stand alert S

“We no longer take as much as before, because these birds eat everything,” she told the BBC.

Also known as gray crown cranes, birds are found mainly in Uganda, but are also in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

They are non -migrating, but they make local and seasonal movements depending on the food resources, the availability of the socket site and the weather.

Standing about 1 m in height (3.2 feet), waterfowl live mainly in wetlands – river shores, around dams and open grasslands – where they multiply and feed on grass seeds, small frogs, frogs, insects and other invertebrates animals.

But with the growing human population, the high demand for food is pushed by farmers to be grown in wetlands, leaving the firing cranes with decreasing areas to call home.

“In East Africa, the population has decreased terribly by over 80% over the last 25 years,” the BBC told the BBC.

In 1970, Uganda boasted a population of over 100,000 cranes, but today this number has decreased to only 10,000, according to Nature Uganda.

This decline saw the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) put Crestry Crane crane In his red list of endangered bird species in 2012.S

“DESPITE ITS SERENITY, BEAUTY AND POPULARITY, The Bird Is Facing A Serious Threat. It Means That IF No Urgent Measures Are Taken to Reverse This Trend,” We Might See. ogist, Told the BBC.

Around Mbarara, we found it difficult to track the birds – and we only saw them early in the morning immediately after the dawn.

Environmentalists say they were much easier to find in the landscape around Mbarara.

Dozens of cranes in recent years have been discovered dead after being poisoned by Rice and Maize farmers in the LWENGO district, in southern central Uganda.

“One of the biggest threats against cranes is farmers’ poisoning. This is because birds cause a lot of damage from crops,” Gilbert Taega, ICF conservation official, told the BBC.

Tayebwa said he had committed farmers to use various determination methods as scarecrow to protect their crops from invading taps.

Farmers such as Philip Nntare of LWENGO said the cranes are sometimes wrongly poisoned after eating crops sprayed with agro -chemicals and other pesticides.

“I just pursue them as I grew up, knowing that the crane should not be killed. But the government should consider compensating farmers for harvest damage,” he told the BBC.

However, John Macombo, Director of Uganda Wildlife Body (UWA), said this was not possible.

“This is one of those valuable species that have the freedom to go everywhere, so unfortunately the government is not responsible for damage caused by cranes,” he told the BBC.

Sarah Kugonza, an ICF environmentalist, said the cranes also faced many other threats – not just by farmers. Without the protective coating of the wetlands, their chickens are more likely to be captured by eagles.

The cranes find every day that they live in an increasingly congestive environment.

“Sometimes the reproduction areas are flooded and nowadays some cranes are killed by electrical lines when flying,” G -ja Kugonza told the BBC.

Their exceptional beauty also puts them at risk as people are increasingly caught by pets, according to G -n Ainomucunguzi.

But the fragile cranes that can live for a little over two decades are hardly ever multiplied as birds are known true.

“This is a highly monogamous bird as it paired once, for life. This means that if one of them is killed or domesticated, the likelihood of finding a new mating partner is almost zero,” said Muheebwa.

They attract half by dancing, worship and jump – and are often seen walking as couples or families. The couple will determine their own territory and can be very aggressive to protect it.

Scientifically called Balearica makes gibbericepsThe cranes also have unique breeding models, as they usually return to the same place a year, often put between two and five eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for anywhere between 28 and 31 days.

Any destruction of these nesting areas affects these breeding models.

Their monogamy also attracted the unwanted attention to local traditional healers who claim that Crested Crane parts can bring fidelity from a partner – or luck.

“Some people have been caught hunting cranes to take some of the parts of their body to the witches’ doctors with conviction that they will get rich. Or, if you are a woman, your husband will never leave you,” said G -n taybwa by ICF.

It is also something that environmentalists are trying to oppose – as well as signal people about the law protecting cranes.

And in their quest to turn the decreasing number, Ugandan government and nature conservation groups are already uniting communities to restore wetlands.

President Yori Museven, who comes from the Western region, calls on the comments to free the wetlands and, according to local media, announced 2025 years of conservation of wetlands.

ICF has also hired guardians to monitor and ensure that cranes breeding places are protected.

Nature Uganda’s Muheebwa said these efforts slowly help stabilize the situation, but the number of crane remains “very low”.

For Macombo, the future accent of UWA will be on an example when it comes to the law.

“We will arrest and pursue those who poison the cranes,” he said.