By Sheree Béga
Thoko Masina was set to take her first flight in a plane this week to collect her "babies" in KwaZulu- Natal - two newborn wattled cranes who will identify her as their mom at Johannesburg Zoo.
The chicks are the result of a record breeding season this year for the critically endangered species, which the zoo, through its captive breeding project, hopes to save from extinction by ultimately releasing their offspring into the wild.
Last week, two chicks, dubbed Snow Shoes and Dex, were flown in from KZN, at just a few days old, to be hand-raised by surrogate mother Masina.
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Jeanne Marie Pittman, the co-ordinator of the zoo's wattled crane recovery programme, says the zoo will rear about seven young cranes, born to either captive birds at the zoo or collected as second, abandoned eggs from wild nests in the KZN Midlands.
Last year, only a single wattled crane was raised successfully at the zoo, compared to the five raised in 2006.
"This is definitely a record year for us," says Pittman, who explains that the chicks will reach their first milestone when they fledge at six months.
At around 18 months they will be paired with other captive wattled cranes and hopefully start breeding around the age of six.
André Rossouw, the project co-ordinator of the KwaZulu- Natal Biodiversity Programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, collects the eggs in remote wetlands in KZN.
Of the eight he collected this year, six have hatched.
"We do aerial surveys to count the adult cranes and that enables us to monitor what the breeding activity is and locate the nests with two eggs," he explains. He then briefly visits the nests and measures the eggs.
"Only when we're absolutely sure the first egg is hatching do we collect the second egg."
Rossouw places the egg in a sock to keep it warm, treks a few kilometres to his car and then puts it inside a special box to regulate the temperature until the egg reaches an incubator.
"Sometimes you have to make three or four trips but it's rewarding to see that egg hatch," he says.
Masina and "crane walker" David Begley, 80, dote upon Snow Shoes and Dex. "They're doing very well," says Masina, who has had to sleep at the zoo so she could feed them every two hours. They're now eating on their own.
Begley, who spends his days walking the zoo's long-legged captive cranes, adds: "They're like our children."
- This article was originally published on page 17 of Cape Argus on August 30, 2008
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