And chicks make four for crane couple
John Yeld
January 19 2007 at 02:19PM
The Overberg's odd couple - aka Blue Cranes "Stoffie" and "Dudi" - are proud parents!
The two hand-reared birds became media stars in 2005 when the amazing story emerged of how they had defied the odds to find each other.
Although they subsequently attempted to produce offspring that year, their eggs were infertile.
Conservationists concerned with protecting this increasingly endangered species - the Blue Crane is South Africa's national bird - pointed out that the chances of the two maladjusted cranes getting the complicated copulation ritual correct were "pretty slim".
One previous nesting attempt this season and another three last season all produced infertile eggs.
Click here!
But to the intense surprise of the cranes' human friends, they finally successfully incubated and are currently very busy raising two chicks.
Their story started in December 2001, when Dudi was snatched from his parents while still a chick.
After a short stay at a commercial game farm near Albertinia, he ended up in rehabilitation at the Overberg Crane Group, which operates from a farm outside Caledon, before being released into the wild - supposedly not to be seen again.
Stoffie's life started in similar fashion in the George area, where she became imprinted on people and white bakkies after being taken as a pet from her parents' nest.
Stoffie, who was an extremely poor candidate for release because of this severe imprinting, was kept in rehabilitation at the crane group farm.
Wild cranes would occasionally drop in to visit, and one of them was Dudi. Gradually he started spending more time alone with Stoffie.
Eventually love took its sweet course, and now the proud parents have their... well, beaks full caring for Stoffie and Dudi junior.
Vicki Hudson, who used to run the group's Blue Crane Field Project, said they were happy to report that the odd couple were "immensely proud, devoted and fiercely protective parents of "two fluffy, golden and very cute chicks".
# On the web: www.bluecrane.org.za
