Twycross Zoo Wants To Show You Their "Ugly Ducklings"

By Kim Riley

 Twycross, UK - Long spindly legs and standing 20 cm tall with brown downy feathers, these “ugly ducklings” are the two new hand reared, East African crowned crane chicks, who moved to Twycross Zoo from Exmoor Zoo this week. The cute double act can be seen in the crèche eating a mixture of cereals and marine duck pellet provided by their keeper. The ugly duckling description applies very well to these little bundles of fluff. As youngsters these birds are a drab brown colour but when they reach adulthood their down transforms into silvery grey and white feathers with a distinctive scarlet throat lappet and a golden fanned crown.

Adult crowned cranes eat a varied diet, including seed heads, fresh tips of grasses, insects, frogs and crabs. They have a long straight beak which helps them to catch their food. Sometimes they stamp their feet to flush out insects to eat and catch them with rapid feeding motions. The adult crane is an excellent flier with a wing span that can reach up to seven feet across when they are in flight.

The African crowned crane inhabits a mixture of wetlands and open grassland. They can also be found in pastures, cropland, fallow fields, irrigated areas and ranches. They roost in trees or even on telegraph poles. They are active during the day and live either in breeding pairs or in flocks of up to one hundred non breeding birds.

Cranes have an elaborate courtship display which they begin by circling each other with wings half spread. They then take short swift strides, every so often leaping into the air and bowing low to their partners. Mated pairs stay together throughout the year and usually stay paired for life until one bird dies. Their relationships are long term as the average life span is between fifteen and twenty years.

 The pair will usually nest in or along wetlands, with the male and female both working on nest construction. The nest consists of uprooted grasses piled high and then flattened into a circular platform. The female usually incubates at night, with the male helping during the day. Once the eggs have hatched both parents will help catch food to feed the chicks. The chicks reach sexual maturity between two or three years old and will then go on to form their own pair bonds.

The African crowned cranes declined during the end of the 20th century due to habitat destruction, drought related changes in land use, use of pesticides, egg collection and hunting.

Twycross Zoo

Twycross Zoo East Midland Zoological Society is a registered charity (No 501841) and aims to “care for our world’s animals and environments through conservation, communication and integrity”

Twycross Zoo is the most comprehensive collection of primate species and subspecies in the western world. Twycross is a popular visitor attraction for families and school children welcoming over 500,000 visitors annually. Opening times for visitors are summer 10.00 am – 5.30 pm and winter 10.00 am - 4.00 pm; the Zoo is open 364 days a year only closing Christmas Day.

Twycross has informal and formal education programmes for all sectors of society about wildlife conservation. We incorporate our animals wherever possible into regional and global breeding programmes to aid species conservation. We have developed environmental enrichment programmes to give our animals a fulfilled life, both physically and mentally.

Twycross Zoo is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and Wildlife Information Network (WIN). These organisations represent their member collections and promote the values of good zoos and aquariums.