I suspect this will be the last RWP post until Tuesday of next week—unless somebody sends me photos from tomorrow till Monday (I leave my photo folder on my office computer). And today we have cranes photographed by reader Karen Bartelt, whose notes and IDs are indented:
In October my husband and I visited the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI. This could be dismissed as just a “crane zoo”, but the foundation does important work, not only bringing wild whooping cranes back from the brink of extinction (down to 22 when I was a kid to over 600 today) but also working to ensure wetland habitat preservation in Africa and Asia. All 15 species of cranes are on site. Here is a selection of some of the cranes. In a separate submission, I’ll send photos of the wild cranes we saw later on in Wisconsin.
Grey-crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum) from southern and eastern Africa. This particular crane imprinted on humans, and was especially fond of Asian men, as her first caretaker was of Japanese descent, or so they said.
Black-crowned crane (Balearica pavonina); south of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the upper Nile.
Blue cranes (Grus paradisea); southern Africa.
Sarus crane (Antigone antigone); India, SE Asia, and Australia. Nonmigratory.
White-naped crane (Antigone vipio); one population breeds in Mongolia and northern China and winters in southern China. A second population breeds in NE China, and some winter in Japan, but some actually winter in the Korean DMZ. You can read more here.
My personal favorite, the Wattled crane (Grus carunculata); Ethiopia and southern Africa.
The International Crane Foundation is a fine place. Well worth supporting.
Reblogged this on The Logical Place.
Beautiful creatures and photos. I have never heard of The International Crane Foundation but I would love to go after seeing this post.
Thank you!
I just went to the site https://www.savingcranes.org/. Lots of interesting stuff there.
I really like these pictures. They are very inimate portraits of species, many that I had not seen before.
Picture 1 is amusing. Maybe like some elementary school teacher I had.
I think it’s the “hair”.
Caption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-ZFzAIlhPc
😎
Whaddya mean, did I wash my hair last night? You trying to be funny or sumpin’?
What beautiful dinosaurs!
These pics are great – very expressive birds, beautiful colors, well chosen poses.
The blue crane is endemic to South Africa (I think there is a small population in Namibia too).
It is commonly seen in The Overberg region of the Western Cape. Due to the small area where it is found, I suspect it is the most vulnerable crane, although the wattled crane is considered rarest in SA.
I don’t think any of the cranes (except maybe the sandhills) are doing that well. The ICF has each crane’s conservation status listed.
Both the “grey-crowned” crane and the “black-crowned” crane seem to have yellow crowns. So I suspect it’s meant to be “grey crowned crane” and “black crowned crane” (sans hyphens), with grey and black referring to the body color of these crowned cranes.
When we saw them in Tanzania, I could not understand the name “grey-crowned crane” since the crown clearly is golden. Now I see from comparing the black-crowned crane that it must refer to the predominant body color. Wouldn’t grey crowned-crane be more accurate?
I may have hyphenated incorrectly!
Great shots enjoyed looking at these amazing birds, specially the first shot. Excellent conservation work those people, hats off.