Efforts made to bring back red-crowned cranes from brink of extinction

The birds usually arrive from neighbouring Cambodia in December and stay until May, when it is the dry season in southern Việt Nam.

The number of red-crowned cranes descending on the Tràm Chim National Park in the Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp has been declining over the past years, with a mere three spotted in their latest return in 2021.

The park is famous as a natural habitat for the large East Asian red-crowned cranes, among the rarest in the world and classified as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The birds usually arrive from neighbouring Cambodia in December and stay until May, when it is the dry season in southern Việt Nam.

However, their numbers have fallen in both countries over the past decade, from 850 in 2010 to below 160 last year. Notably, none perched at the Tràm Chim National Park last year and in 2020.

"The contraction reveals that the bird is teetering on the brink of extinction in the Mekong Delta and Việt Nam in general," said Nguyễn Hoài Bảo, a lecturer at the Việt Nam National University-HCM City.

He blamed habitat deterioration and environmental pollution induced by agricultural production for the issue, stressing that their absence also demonstrates wetland habitat degradation and biodiversity loss.

Given this, Đồng Tháp has rolled out a project aiming to revive the flocks of the bird at the Tràm Chim National Park, and restore the wetland habitat for many other species.

The project is a joint effort by the provincial People’s Committee, the Việt Nam Zoos Association, the International Crane Foundation, and the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand, which has been successful in the work.

Accordingly, the Đồng Tháp People’s Committee will manage and finance the crane recovery programme at the Tràm Chim National Park, the International Crane Foundation and the Việt Nam Zoos Association will provide consultation services and offer training courses to crane keepers, and the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand will provide the Tràm Chim National Park with red-crowned chicks each year, apart from training employees at the park to take care of cranes and recover the habitat of the red-crowned cranes.

According to Nguyễn Hoàng Minh Hải, the park's head of the research and international cooperation division, the VNĐ92 billion (US$3.87 million) project is expected to raise and release 150 cranes into the wild between 2023 and 2033, with a minimum survival rate of 100.

Bảo also stressed the need for competent agencies to restore the original wetland habitat and the agricultural ecosystem to ensure livelihoods for local residents as part of the effort to conserve the endangered species.