Runaway pet? Woman spotted 'rescuing' endangered African Crowned Crane in Singapore

A video of a woman calmly carrying an exotic bird, the African Grey Crowned Crane, by its wings along a road in Singapore made its rounds on social media yesterday (April 4).

From the video, it seems that neither the bird nor woman struggled and seemed very familiar with the process — the woman even laughed as the person recording the video drove past her and asked her a few questions. 

The video, which was uploaded to Reddit, garnered over 300 upvotes.

"Seems domesticated," a Redditor surmised. "I think it's a pet that flew away and the helper [is] bringing it back home."

Another Redditor humorously commented, "Is this some kind of rich people hobby that plebeians like me will never understand?"

This is not the first time that this species of bird 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 (video below). 

Netizens have identified the bird as an African Grey Crowned Crane and it could be one of two Grey Crowned Cranes residing in Seletar.

[embed]https://youtu.be/tq8OpWenwKg?t=55[/embed]

According to National Geographic, the African Grey Crowned Crane is the national bird of Uganda. It is a sought-after status symbol for the wealthy and are usually illegally caught and sold in large quantities.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared the African Grey Crowned Crane as an endangered species.

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khooyihang@asiaone.com