Hooded Crane

Conservation Status:
Endangered - USFWS
CITES Appendix 1

Description:
Hooded Cranes stand 3 feet tall, with a 5-6 foot wingspan.  Their front crown has bright red skin, covered with black bristle-like feathers.  The hind crown, cheeks, and neck are white, and the rest of their plumage is dark gray.  Their legs are black.

Range:
Eastern Asia, including parts of Siberia, China, Korea, and Japan

Habitat:
Swamps, bogs, riverbanks, and lakeshores

Diet:
In the wild, they eat aquatic plants, other plant material such as berries, grains, and blades of grass, and small aquatic animals.  In the zoo, our cranes eat Mazuri crane diet, bird of prey meat, alfalfa hay, and mealworms.

Life Cycle:
Hooded Cranes nest in isolated, widely scattered bogs, preferring mossy areas with thin tree cover.  They build nests out of damp moss, peat, twigs, and leaves.  They lay their eggs in late April and early May, usually laying 2 eggs per clutch.  Incubation takes 27-30 days, and the chicks fledge when they are about 75 days old.  They can live up to 30 years in captivity.

Did You Know?

·        Like other cranes, Hooded Cranes perform energetic dances to reinforce their pair bonds.

·        They are considered a National Monument in South Korea.

·        The main threats to Hooded Crane populations are habitat destruction and disease outbreaks in their winter flocks, where they gather in large numbers at feeding stations.

·        Scientists are using their knowledge about the cranes’ breeding biology in captive breeding programs.  In the wild, if one clutch of eggs is destroyed early in the breeding season, the cranes will lay another clutch.  In captivity, scientists remove the first clutch of eggs to be incubated and hand-raised.  The cranes lay a second clutch, and raise these chicks themselves.

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