The Blue Crane – South Africa’s graceful national bird – is in trouble. Once a common sight across the open plains of the Karoo and Western Cape, this elegant species has officially been uplisted from Near Threatened to Vulnerable in the newly published Regional Red Data Book 2025. It’s a worrying shift that highlights a growing risk of extinction in the wild over the coming decades.
With fewer than 30 000 individuals remaining globally, almost all of them found within South Africa, the Blue Crane’s future now depends heavily on local conservation efforts. While populations in the Karoo remain relatively strong, alarming data from the long-running Coordinated Avifaunal Roadcounts (CAR) citizen science project shows a 44% decline in the Overberg region between 2011 and 2025 – an area that saw a 261% increase just a decade earlier.
According to Lynda du Plessis, manager of the Ford Wildlife Foundation, the uplisting is a sobering reminder that conservation never stops. “Our national bird needs us now more than ever,” she says. “The Ford Wildlife Foundation is proud to support the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in this renewed fight. Our locally built Ford Ranger plays a vital role in this partnership, enabling conservation teams to reach remote areas, support citizen science projects like CAR, and engage directly with farmers and communities. It’s a symbol of how industry can actively help protect South Africa’s natural heritage.”
Understanding the decline
Research by Dr Christie Craig, a conservation scientist at the EWT, paints a worrying picture. Breeding success among Blue Crane pairs in the Overberg has dropped dramatically over the past 30 years, with pairs now raising just over half a chick (0.55 fledglings) on average – far below what’s needed to sustain the population. MSc researcher Michelle Bouwer found that rising temperatures, human disturbance, and fence entanglement of flightless chicks are among the main reasons for nesting failures.
Complicating matters further, most Blue Cranes live outside protected areas. They often fall victim to accidental poisoning, collisions with power lines, and habitat loss due to changing farming practices such as minimum tillage and the rise of canola farming. Each of these factors chips away at the spaces where cranes can safely feed, nest, and raise their young.
Coordinated conservation
To tackle this complex challenge, the EWT/ICF partnership, supported by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Conservation Planning Specialist Group, has developed a multi-stakeholder conservation plan. Working alongside organisations such as the Overberg Crane Group, CapeNature, and BirdLife South Africa, the plan focuses on four key areas:
- Habitat protection: Expanding conservation efforts from the Drakensberg into the Western Cape and Karoo.
- Energy infrastructure management: Reducing collisions by improving power line routing and design in partnership with Eskom and renewable energy developers.
- Crane-friendly agriculture: Collaborating with farmers to reduce poisoning, minimise disturbance during breeding, and adapt to changing agricultural practices.
- Research and monitoring: Reviving citizen science initiatives like CAR and strengthening long-term population tracking to inform conservation decisions.
“The uplisting is a wake-up call, but also a motivator,” says Dr Damian Walters, Senior Conservation Manager at the EWT/ICF. “Our work takes us across vast landscapes, and every kilometre counts. The Ford Ranger provided by the Ford Wildlife Foundation allows us to access remote areas, monitor nests, investigate incidents, and build relationships with farmers – which is essential to this effort. The Ranger’s reliability and off-road ability mean we can be where the Blue Cranes need us most.”
The EWT team recently completed its 30th annual aerial survey across KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and the Eastern Cape. They’re also using new technologies such as satellite tracking and drones to monitor chicks and nests more efficiently. Since December 2024, the team has travelled nearly 28 000km in their Ford Ranger – from tar roads to rugged backroads and wetlands – proving that conservation often relies on more than just passion; it also needs dependable mobility.
For the Ford Wildlife Foundation, which supports 28 conservation, research, and environmental education projects across South Africa (and one in Mozambique), partnerships like this one are vital. “It’s about ensuring that South Africa’s most iconic species – like the Blue Crane – remain part of our landscape for generations to come,” adds Du Plessis.
More information about the Ford Wildlife Foundation and its conservation projects can be found at https://www.ford.co.za/about-ford/wildlife-foundation/
