A video shared on several social media pages shows a woman smiling while she strolls down Joan Road, near MacRitchie Reservoir, clutching a large bird which is an endangered species not native to Singapore.
The grey crowned crane is native to eastern and southern Africa and has been listed as endangered since 2012 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.
It was reported in the newspapers about 10 years ago that grey crowned cranes and flamingos were parading in the extensive garden of a private estate in the Upper Thomson Road area.
The family who kept the cranes and the flamingos declined to talk to the press, but their domestic helper said that the birds had been with them for nearly a decade. A neighbour, who did not want to be named, observed that the birds could get rowdy on occasion.
In this latest video clip of the bird, the woman is described as a foreign domestic worker by a Facebook group that shared the video. It appears that the grey crowned crane is domesticated as it did not struggle as it was being handled.
The grey crowned crane is the national bird of Uganda. Adults are about a metre tall with a wingspan of 2m, and weigh some 3.5 kg, and has a wingspan of 2m. Its plumage is mainly grey, and its wings are mostly white, but have coloured feathers. The birds have a prominent black patch on top of the head, under a spray of golden feathers, and a bright red inflatable throat pouch. Their long black legs enable them to move easily through the grass. Their large, slender feet are used for balance more than defence or grasping.
“This species and the black-crowned crane are the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches. This trait is assumed to be an ancestral trait among the cranes, which has been lost in the other subfamily. Crowned cranes also lack a coiled trachea and have loose plumage compared to the other cranes,” according to Wikipedia.
The Animal & Veterinary Service (AVS) makes it is legal to import and care for such rare birds but additional permits are required for import, export, or re-export of endangered ornamental birds listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
This is not the first time that this species has been sighted in Singapore. One had appeared in the Seletar area, more specifically in the Seletar Country Club golf course where it has lived since 2013.
Another similar species was also seen pecking at a black car and looking at its reflection in a video posted to the Facebook group, Singapore Wildlife Sightings in December 2020.
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