When the green pick-up truck pulls up with the three grey crowned cranes outside the clinic in Nairobi’s Karen estate, Dr Zoe Gibbs rushes out to the cargo box, picks the birds one by one, holds each gently in her arms and begins to conduct a quick physical examination.
‘They are in a terrible condition. The wings have been clipped, and the bodies are emaciated. One has a bleeding wound where a growing secondary feather has been pulled out, and there is a leg wound on another where it has been tied with string that has cut into the bird’s leg,’ says Dr Gibbs, running her fingers through the feathers and over the keels to feel the breast muscles.
‘They are not in a condition to fly. The concave-shaped keels indicate that the muscles in the breast area are too emaciated to support flying. They have been held captive for some time, with poor nutritional support.’
She expects the cranes to regain flying ability after eight months of treatment and rehabilitation at the facility run by Raptor Rehabilitation Trust Kenya (RRK), a non-profit organisation that uses conservation medicine to improve the recovery and survival of wild birds.
A clearer picture of their health will, however, only emerge in the next 24 hours, during which they are to undergo comprehensive assessments and screening, including blood and faecal tests, X-rays, ultrasounds and ECG [electrocardiogram], to rule out or confirm the presence of diseases or damage to internal organs.
Dr Gibbs, the director of RRK, says the survival rates for birds admitted to the clinic have improved dramatically in recent years because of the availability of modern diagnostic technology.
‘Our most recent data show survival rates of up to 95 percent. The current blood assessments we have can give us a good overview of the clinical state of internal organ function in 11 minutes. Severe cases where birds have multiple fractures, have soft tissue injuries or have been poisoned are admitted to the ICU (intensive care unit). Those birds that don’t require intensive care are admitted to the facilities’ HDU (high dependency unit),’ says Dr Gibbs, a sports science specialist who started practising conservation medicine as a hobby.
‘Of course, things can always be better, and there is some equipment we don’t have. Some procedures are costly to perform, with Sh6,500 for comprehensive blood tests, but these are essential to ensuring a good outcome for the bird. Most specialised equipment we use is not available locally. Our connections in the US and South Africa assist us with the equipment we lack. In some cases, there is a need to improvise or adapt, such as using paediatric orthopaedic kits designed for humans, as these work well for our small patients.’
A majority of the cases are referrals from the general public or conservation organisations working with local communities, including the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the International Crane Foundation (ICF), Cranes Conservation Volunteers (CCV), and Nature Kenya.
‘The growing public referral is encouraging, as it shows an increase in awareness and education about our work. Should anyone in the community encounter birds that need help, they should report it to the nearest KWS office or a conservation group, or to our centre directly so that we can swiftly attend to each case, which will improve survival rates. Time is of the essence with birds,’ says Dr Gibbs.
Among the current patients in ICU is an owl, brought in with multiple fractures in the legs believed to have been inflicted by a physical assault.
For the three grey crowned cranes referred by the ICF, the beginning of rehabilitation marks another vital step in what could be a long recovery journey following their chance rescue by CCV and KWS (Nyahururu Station) a few weeks ago in Tumaini in Ol Kalou, Nyandarua County.
They will need enough time to drop the clipped feathers and grow new ones.
‘The volunteers were monitoring a crane’s nest on a wetland in the area when they received information that someone in the neighbourhood was keeping three cranes in his home. On further inquiry, they learned that the cranes were earlier transferred from Juja (about 184 kilometres away) after the previous hosts were warned that it was illegal to keep cranes in people’s homes,’ says Dr Wanyoike Wamiti, an ornithologist and the research and monitoring manager at the ICF.
‘Keeping wildlife species [only those listed on the Tenth Schedule of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2023] without a permit from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is against the law. The grey crowned crane is not listed on this Schedule and should therefore not be held in any captive facility or people’s homes.’
The ICF is a key organisation that supports RRK with the provision of specialised essential veterinary supplies from its headquarters in Baraboo, USA.
The grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum) is listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2012, which means it faces a very high risk of extinction.
It is also one of the 255 species listed by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), a legally binding intergovernmental treaty that commits parties, including Kenya, to protect them and conserve their habitats.
The grey crowned crane is an icon or indicator species of Africa’s wetlands and grasslands due to its high dependence on the two habitats for breeding, foraging and socialisation.
It also plays a critical role in the ecosystem, aiding nutrient cycling and seed dispersal while feeding on both plant and animal materials.
In Kenya, the grey crowned crane is also part of the country’s national and cultural heritage, adorning the emblems of the Nairobi City County Government, the University of Nairobi and Kisii University and revered in some ethnic communities as a totem.
Because of its beauty and elegance, it is much sought-after illegally as an ornamental bird for captive facilities such as fun places, hotels and homes. Its charisma is thus its own big threat!
Under its 10-year conservation and recovery action plan for the grey crowned crane in Kenya, the government has identified removal of chicks and eggs from the wild for illegal trade as one of the biggest threats to the birds, alongside disturbance of breeding areas, encroachment on habitats and retaliatory attacks or direct persecution by humans in cases of crop damage.
The plan, launched last year, has set targets to reduce cases of direct persecution, poaching and illegal trade by 80 percent, improve breeding performance by 60 percent and increase habitat restoration and protection by 70 percent in the next five years.
But conservation groups continue to sound the alarm bells over the survival of the grey crowned crane amid emerging threats such as poisoning, collision and electrocution with power lines, and the impact of climate change.
There are only about 10,000 grey crowned cranes left in Kenya, down from 35,000 in the mid-1980s.
‘Over 70 percent of the cranes we have rescued since mid-2024 have been from captive facilities. When it happens, poisoning incidents often involve many birds. For example, 18 cranes were poisoned in Nyandarua in 2019 and 13 cranes in Nandi in 2026 – all of which died,’ says Dr Wamiti, who works with the ICF’s teams and Crane Conservation Volunteers to rescue cranes in different parts of the country. Injured birds are referred to RRK for treatment and rehabilitation within the shortest time possible.
Healthy but flightless chicks are reunited with their parents or linked with a foster parent for adoption.
Where none of these options works, the chicks are referred to RRK for raising until they gain flight at the age of two and a half to three months.
Rehabilitated cranes are released slowly at Ecoscapes Sanctuary in Naivasha, an organic farm that has donated some of their land for wildlife.
‘From the more than 30 cranes that we have rescued across the country since 2023, over 85 percent of them have been successfully rehabilitated and re-wilded (released back to the field), and one of the males has paired with a wild female and is raising a family in Lake Naivasha. With Kenya’s crane population having declined by over 70 percent since 1985, we must work hard to halt further population decline, and initiate activities that will help the species to recover,’ says Dr Wamiti.
That work is being made even harder by the impact of climate change.
When a severe drought hit Kenya between 2020 and 2023, cranes were greatly affected as wetlands dried, thus losing their breeding habitat.
The most dramatic effect of the drought was observed in Lake Ol’ Bolossat, a candidate Ramsar site, where water levels plummeted to historic lows.
A Ramsar site is a wetland designated as one of international importance under the Ramsar Convention signed in Iran in 1971 to protect wetlands recognised for their ecological, hydrological, and biodiversity value.
‘Cranes require wetlands with some depth of water and emergent vegetation to breed and raise their young ones. When there is flooding, cranes and other waterbirds abandon their nests, and their eggs or chicks may be carried away by the raging water. In many parts of western Kenya, we are observing cranes shifting to the use of non-traditional nesting sites such as the tops of bushes or drylands in wheat fields. This is perhaps an adaptation of a species trying to survive in a rapidly changing landscape,’ says Dr Wamiti.