Global crane conservation initiative was sparked by a battlefield incident during the Vietnam conflict

Ron Sauey (left) and George Archibald - founders of the International Crane Foundation

 

WITH the last days of 2023 winding down, it would be remiss not to mention that this years has marked the 50th anniversary of the Wisconsin-based International Crane Foundation.

The initiative was prompted by George Archibald who, reportedly, was  inspired  by the sight of a pair of dancing Eurasian cranes while he was serving in the US Army during the Vietnam war in the early 1970s.

The birds had landed, during a lull in the gunfire, on a patch of land separating the two sides. 

It struck the spellbound Archibald, now 77, that it was almost as if they somehow were trying to mediate. 

Archibald vowed that, if he survived the war, he would dedicate his life to studying and conserving the birds all over the world.

Although the Foundation has achieved much conservation success in many parts of the world, the 15 different species are all vulnerable to a greater or lesser extent.

The late Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi  would be saddened that Siberian cranes seem to have been lost to the country's Keoladeo National Park because she used to make an annual pilgrimage to the site in order to be inspired what she and countryfolk termed the 'lily of birds'.

It is thought that their demise stemmed  from years of war in Afghanistan where, like other birds,  they were shot for food.

It was a similar story in Azerbaijan where, during food shortages in the 1990s, the government gave the green light for hunting of wildlife including Siberian cranes in  reserves such as  wetlands where they used to stop off during migration.

A particularly sad fate befell a Japanese (red-crowned) crane that was stolen from the zoo at Novosibirsk in Russia.

After wringing the bird's neck, the culprit swapped half the meat from the bird for vodka and kept the rest for his own consumption.

In fact, he was in the act of frying his retained half of the bird when the police arrived.

The International Crane Foundation is at: Saving Cranes and the Places Where Cranes Dance - International Crane Foundation

Above and below - two books published by George Archibald