Region: Asia

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The Cheorwon Plain, located south of the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea, is an important staging and wintering area for Red-crowned and White-naped Cranes in East Asia.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) marking the border between North and South Korea has recently been in the news as the site of the historic meeting between the presidents of those two countries, preceding the arguably even more historic Kim–Trump summit in Singapore. While the DMZ, a natural refuge between the two countries, has become more forested in recent years as a result of an agreement to limit the risk of forest fires, the fertile Cheorwon Plain immediately south of the DMZ in South Korea has become increasingly important as a staging and wintering area for thousands of cranes.

Region: Asia

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“At every dinner and meeting, Jim’s infectious laugh reverberates across the room and melts cultural differences, everyone is accepted and feels accepted because of his joy.” Sammy King, Louisiana Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, USGS

On the occasion of his retirement from the International Crane Foundation, I find myself reflecting on my long friendship with Jim Harris. Jim has been a close friend these many years, and our organization has greatly benefited from his unwavering dedication and leadership. In 1977, Co-Founder Ron Sauey first invited then free-lance journalist Jim Harris to write about Siberian Cranes. Little did we know at the time that Jim would be inextricably involved in the welfare of these magnificent birds in the ensuing decades.

Region: Asia

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This research is published in the latest issue of the journal Waterbirds. Click here to read the abstract.

Throughout the world, cranes time their nesting to wet seasons, ensuring abundant resources for growing families. Migratory species, such as Siberian Cranes in East Asia or Sandhill Cranes in North America, return to their breeding areas as spring returns to northern latitudes, bringing plentiful food for hungry chicks and open water for safe nesting.

Region: Asia

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When you support crane conservation, you support water, plants, renewal, conservation, animals and people. When you support cranes, you support life on Earth. You can make a difference by donating today.

Region: Asia

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I was working in Zambia when word came that the United States would pull out of the international Paris Agreement on climate change. Listening to this news with a group of Zambian colleagues, I was saddened. In Zambia, and nearly everywhere we work around the world, climate change is treated as a life or death matter. The prospect of intensely prolonged droughts and water shortages, chronic food insecurity, power outages, coastal land loss under rising seas, and extremely violent storms doesn’t bode well for poor countries like Zambia that lack the resources to adapt to these daunting challenges. These countries have contributed little to global warming but face the brunt of its impacts.

Region: Asia

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We’ve received updated information regarding the Siberian Cranes found earlier this winter poisoned near their staging area on the Yellow River delta in eastern China.

Professor Qian Fawen, executive deputy director of the National Bird Banding Center of China and secretary general of the United Crane Conservation Committee of China Wildlife Conservation Association contacted us Dec. 11 with new information.

Region: Asia

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The idea for an Eastern Sarus Crane reintroduction program in Thailand “hatched” at an International Crane Workshop in 1983 hosted by the Government of India and the International Crane Foundation. One year later we presented three pairs of juvenile Australian Sarus Cranes to the Queen of Thailand and the Royal Forestry Department. In 1986, Eastern Sarus Cranes were rediscovered in Vietnam and soon thereafter in Cambodia. Eastern Sarus Cranes, confiscated from animal dealers who purchased cranes in Cambodia, were established at the Bangphra Waterfowl Research Station of the Royal Forestry Department, and subsequently at the Khao Khio Open Zoo and the Khorat Zoo of the Zoological Parks Organization of Thailand. The Australian Sarus were used for avicultural research but never used for captive breeding.

Region: Asia

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I ride a unicycle and often find myself thinking about balance. I’ve learned I can do all sorts of surprising things when firmly balanced on one wheel… playing hockey, riding marathon distances, or winding down a mountainside on bumpy dirt trails. Conservation is likewise about finding balance in challenging circumstances – that elusive balance that results in win-win solutions for people and wildlife and thereby builds broad public support for conservation.

Region: Asia

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Media Contact: Betsy Didrickson, Information Services Manager, 608-356-9462 x124

Editor’s note: photos available by emailing Betsy

BARABOO, Wis. – George Archibald, Ph.D., co-founder of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis., is one of five finalists for the inaugural Award for Conservation Excellence (ACE) presented by the Banovich Wildscapes Foundation and sponsored by Cabela’s Outdoor Fund, the Cabela Family Foundation, and Bass Pro Shops.

Region: Asia

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The habitat that first comes to mind when we refer to cranes is wetlands. We immediately think of an expansive amount of water dotted with lilies and lotus, bordered by swaying reeds in which a heron or two skulks, accompanied by the symphony of frogs.

For the Sarus Crane, the imagery is more diverse. In South Asia, these cranes live and nest amid flooded rice paddies, never far from the humdrum of a north Indian village, its farmers and their cattle. They also use the community-owned wetlands on the riverine floodplains, where they are joined by a multitude of waterbird species, alongside cattle, pigs and farmers.