Bonn, 15 April – South Africa’s national bird is going hi-tech. Like cars and cellphones, blue cranes have now been fitted with GPS tracking devices. Conservationists from the Karoo Crane Conservation Project have captured five cranes near Richmond in the Western Cape and fitted them with lightweight GPS transmitters.

The data provided by the GPS trackers should solve many of the mysteries surrounding blue cranes. “We have absolutely no idea where they go to when they migrate,” said Bradley Gibbons, regional co-ordinator for the Karoo Crane Conservation Project. The only information available so far is that the birds congregate in groups of up to 300 during winter and disperse in summer to breed.

The GPS transmitters measuring five by three centimetres were attached to the birds’ shoulders by using dental floss; this rots away after about two years causing the transmitters to fall off.

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