The Sarus crane is the world's tallest flying
bird; a large male may stand six feet tall. There are three recognized subspecies
of the sarus crane. The Indian sarus cranes live, as their name implies, predominately
in Asia's subcontinent.
In areas dominated by the Hindu religion, the Indian sarus suffers little persecution.
They have, as a result, lost much of their fear of humans and often nest in
rice paddies where they are regarded as omens for good crops, especially in
India.
Eastern sarus cranes were once abundant in Southeast Asia, but after decades
of war they are missing from most of their former range. The few that remain
nest in Cambodia in small wetlands surrounded by dry forest, but migrate to
Viet Nam's lower Mekong Delta to winter at the Tram Chim National Reserve.
There is a smaller non-migratory population, discovered by ICF staff in 1996,
that lives in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta. The third subspecies is the Australian
sarus crane.
Siberian Cranes (Grus leucogeranus), the subspecific population that
breeds in central Siberia.
Black-necked Cranes (Grus nigricoilis)
Status
Despite cultural and religious protections, sarus cranes are vulnerable in most
areas. Roughly 8,000 to 10,000 Indian sarus remain, though the population is
declining due to the loss of wetlands and increasing amounts of pollution as
the human population continues to grow.
The greatest concentration of Indian sarus cranes occur where land use practices
have changed littlefrom traditional patterns. Some fear that the whole wetland
food web on which sarus cranes depend may be under stress as pesticides and
fertilizers become more widespread in the subcontinent's rural areas. Even in
India's Keoladeo National Park, the number of sarus nests has decreased since
the early 1980s.
The Eastern sarus population in Southeast Asia is estimated at 500 to 1,500
birds. This subspecies is subject to hunting, pollution, warfare, heavy use
of pesticides, and development of the Mekong River.
A rapidly growing human population threatens to overwhelm areas that these cranes
rely on. There is also trade in and hunting of both chicks and adult birds in
some areas.
Habitat
Northern and central India, southeastern Pakistan, southern Myanmar, Cambodia,
southern Laos, Viet Nam, and northern Australia. The Philippine population of
sarus cranes is probably extinct.