Which Crane Species Are Nice In Temperment?

Sarus Crane

Sarus Crane

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5+ year member
Today I got to go behind the scenes at my local zoo where I got to see their pair of Red Crowned Cranes up close. I thought they'd be calm, cool and collected, but they were patrolling the fence line and charging and attacking the fence when I wasn't looking directly at them. I know this is because cranes are highly territorial. The male was performing the drop wing threat while the female was in most cases the aggressor, the one pecking at the fence and not letting me out of her sight. Maybe I got too close to the fence at one point, but the male leaped up, wings outstretched, and full on slammed into it in what I'd like to say raptor mode. Are there any crane species that aren't this aggressive? I thought they were only this way during breeding season and their breeding season isn't until spring. (Video coming soon)

Maybe I caught myself short but those Sarus Cranes at Zoo Miami NEVER acted anything like this towards me and I never felt I was at all intimidated by them and they're much bigger than the Red Crowns. Are those cranes' aggressive hormones non-existent or are they just super accustomed to people? Maybe if cranes don't have regular human socialization/interaction they're just really mean when they become mature??? I always thought I'd never be hesitant about keeping cranes one day but now I'm having second thoughts. Which species are nice or not this aggressive? If anyone has experiences with any of the 15 species in regards to temperament please let me know because if all cranes are this mean I'd rather be around storks, ibises or spoonbills.
 
I'm afraid I can't answer your question but I just want to say I'll be eagerly awaiting your video, they're usually pretty neat (especially the bat in the office one).
 
Hipporex said:
I'm afraid I can't answer your question but I just want to say I'll be eagerly awaiting your video, they're usually pretty neat (especially the bat in the office one).
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Thanks! The bat was quite an experience! I've never seen a one that big before. Glad you like my vids. I try to cover all views of an exhibit and animals in them. I'm about to post some pics from today. Enjoy! :)
 
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Ahh, it's is actually quite the opposite of what you think, the more human acclimated a crane is, the worse it gets!

Male cranes of all species, if hand reared as chicks and allowed to imprint on humans, turn into the absolute most aggressive, fearless, tough to work around birds possible. They'll jump in your face, kick and scratch with their legs, and try and jab your eyes out with their beaks, and that's not an exaggeration whatsoever! It's worse in the breeding season, but as a general rule year round you can expect to be attacked if you enter the enclosure. Imprint females are a bit of a different story. If kept as a single bird, they will often become incredibly sweet and docile birds who are an absolute pleasure to work around. However, should an imprint female take a mate, you can expect the worse, and she too will become a terror like the male. With imprints they lack all fear of people, and while this can make for an excellent program bird if female, it usually just turns into a nightmare bird situation once the bird is sexually mature.

The ideal cranes to work around are parent reared cranes, that were raised with a reaonsable amount of human activity near by. This creates birds that (generally) have a respect for humans, and are reasonably easy to work around. That said, even the meekest of cranes can turn into an absolute dinosaur when nesting.

With Miamis sarus pair, beside being rather old, they are also most likely parent reared, and they don't *really* have a super good spot to nest in, so that might help keep them calm too. They're actually the only cranes I can think of off the top of my head in a walk through exhibit in North America!

Of the cranes available in private hands in the US, the best species to start with would be non-imprinted demoiselle or grey crowned cranes. They're reasonable easy to acquire, not super expensive, and not too large either.

I have a imprinted grey crowned female named Amelia, she's a sweet and wonderful bird with me and other people, however I would not want to cross her! She gets on ok with my ducks that she has been with since young, however with any other bird, she is out to kill!
 
I like Grey Crowns and Black Crowns and they can be mixed in with a variety of African hoofstock including Marabous! So with them you get the best of both worlds. If I went with an Asian crane I would like to have a single male Sarus as an imprint bird. He'd be a great companion and guard dog and since most of my family is allergic to fur bearing animals I feel it'd be the right fit. I'd probably name him an Indian name but if I got a Grey Crowned I'd name him Pennywise because they can be aggressive and their colorful faces always remind me of clowns. :)
 
Sarus Crane said:
I like Grey Crowns and Black Crowns and they can be mixed in with a variety of African hoofstock including Marabous! So with them you get the best of both worlds. If I went with an Asian crane I would like to have a single male Sarus as an imprint bird. He'd be a great companion and guard dog and since most of my family is allergic to fur bearing animals I feel it'd be the right fit. I'd probably name him an Indian name but if I got a Grey Crowned I'd name him Pennywise because they can be aggressive and their colorful faces always remind me of clowns. :)
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An imprinted Sarus male is likely to be quite dangerous. IMHO cranes should not be put at risk by running them with hoofstock.
 
I'm very confused, so you *intentionally* want a 6 foot tall bird with a foot long beak and an 8 foot vertical leap, that will constant try to attack you, as a pet ?! Yes, if your entire property is fenced with 8+ foot fence, and your bird is pinioned or clipped, I suppose they might make a decent "guard dog". However you and anyone else attempting to walk around outside are going to need to walk around wearing full face masks and other protective gear, since the crane is going to attack you too! He would be a terrible companion and merely a somewhat ok watchdog. Also a crane is not an animal you want puttering around your house, so the whole allergies thing is a bit of a null point ;)
 
Hyak_II said:
I'm very confused, so you *intentionally* want a 6 foot tall bird with a foot long beak and an 8 foot vertical leap, that will constant try to attack you, as a pet ?! Yes, if your entire property is fenced with 8+ foot fence, and your bird is pinioned or clipped, I suppose they might make a decent "guard dog". However you and anyone else attempting to walk around outside are going to need to walk around wearing full face masks and other protective gear, since the crane is going to attack you too! He would be a terrible companion and merely a somewhat ok watchdog. Also a crane is not an animal you want puttering around your house, so the whole allergies thing is a bit of a null point ;)
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tDomestic geese would make better watchdogs, and less likely to kill you!
 
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Demoiselle cranes are the mildest in temperament. They can be used in walkthrough exhibits and be fed by children, or just be running free in the zoo like peafowl (I've experienced both situations).

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Damiselas Comiendo

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The contrary side are larger cranes and I think that most notably, sarus and white-naped cranes are specially aggresive (but also Siberian, red-crowned, etc). I remember three experiences. One of the very complete crane collection at Taipei zoo, where the white-naped crane lives in a small enclosure with chicken wire enclosing. It just stays standing as close to the wire as it can, waiting for human visitors. Those that admire it from a distance are more or less ignored, but I tried to take a photo with my camera just in the wire for avoid wires in my pic, and the crane striked at me at high speed before I can. There is no chance of damage because the chicken wire is too small for its beak, but...!
The Siberian cranes of Berlin (tierpark I think) was especially aggresive too. I tried the same for obtain a photo. Cranes were respectful for visitors as far as they don't come just so close as to the netting. But if a visitor comes too close they feel their territory invaded and come quickly to attack. The third crane as at Duisburg zoo, a couple of sarus crane (the female was incubating), the enclosure have a glass viewing window and a wooden fence. A mother and child was just in the glass window while at the other side the male was as close as he can from the humans, moving and trying to find a way of strike the visitors.
 
Hyak_II said:
I'm very confused, so you *intentionally* want a 6 foot tall bird with a foot long beak and an 8 foot vertical leap, that will constant try to attack you, as a pet ?! Yes, if your entire property is fenced with 8+ foot fence, and your bird is pinioned or clipped, I suppose they might make a decent "guard dog". However you and anyone else attempting to walk around outside are going to need to walk around wearing full face masks and other protective gear, since the crane is going to attack you too! He would be a terrible companion and merely a somewhat ok watchdog. Also a crane is not an animal you want puttering around your house, so the whole allergies thing is a bit of a null point ;)
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Sorry if I confused you. I'm not looking for a fatal pet. I have to admit because my first up close encounter and subsequent ones with them was positive I was blind to their capability to inflict serious harm. I feel if my encounter yesterday happened before seeing the Sarus's in Miami I would have been much more cautious while in Wings of Asia. I guess I could relate it to those people who have a good, positive and non-fatal experience with a big cat (like Australia Zoo's tiger walks or other places you can get up close to Class 1 dangerous animals). As much as I like Sarus's I think now if I want to get into crane keeping I'll start out with either B. regulorum or B. pavonina. It also doesn't help that videos like these helped reinforce the notion that all Sarus Cranes are "temperamentally equal" and that all can be super affectionate, laid back birds (which of course, isn't remotely the case). I'll post a video of my fun highlights with Miami's Sarus's.
Ryan David Themba Reines on Instagram: “”

Oh and please don't delete this post because it is NOT AT ALL MEANT to encourage this type of interaction. I'm just reinforcing my statement as to what led to this post in the first place. ;)
 
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See here's the thing why I'm confused. In those three videos, two of them are females, and in the last one, the males is only 9 months old, and as such still at a friendly age. So why would you want an aggressive male as a "pet"?
 
Hyak_II said:
See here's the thing why I'm confused. In those three videos, two of them are females, and in the last one, the males is only 9 months old, and as such still at a friendly age. So why would you want an aggressive male as a "pet"?
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Only because they're taller than females. I could totally do without the aggression so I'd have to go with a female if I ever really wanted one.
 
Having experience with 12 out ofthe 15 species I must say in general there can be a great difference between individuals. Hand reared animals are more aggressive than parent raised as Hyak_II stated before. Also they tend to be more aggressive in the breeding season. The most mild species are the two species of crowned cranes and the demoiselles. But only demoiselles never attacked me, some crowned Crane males (hand reared and in breeding season) have attacked me in the past. All hand reared males of the larger species and also some parent reared males can be extremely dangerous! When angry they will attack you with their beak, wings and leggs all on the same time. Be very carefull with them!
 
Stefan Verhoeven said:
Having experience with 12 out ofthe 15 species I must say in general there can be a great difference between individuals. Hand reared animals are more aggressive than parent raised as Hyak_II stated before. Also they tend to be more aggressive in the breeding season. The most mild species are the two species of crowned cranes and the demoiselles. But only demoiselles never attacked me, some crowned Crane males (hand reared and in breeding season) have attacked me in the past. All hand reared males of the larger species and also some parent reared males can be extremely dangerous! When angry they will attack you with their beak, wings and leggs all on the same time. Be very carefull with them!
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I didn't get it on camera but the male crane did jump up and body slam the fence with wings wide open. It was nice to be on the other side of the fence. Which species have you worked with other than the ones mentioned above?
My top five species in order of favorite to lesser favorite are:
1) Grey Crowned
2) Black Crowned
3) Blue
4) White Naped
5) Sarus
 
Sarus Crane said:
I didn't get it on camera but the male crane did jump up and body slam the fence with wings wide open. It was nice to be on the other side of the fence. Which species have you worked with other than the ones mentioned above?
My top five species in order of favorite to lesser favorite are:
1) Grey Crowned
2) Black Crowned
3) Blue
4) White Naped
5) Sarus
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Imho Demoiselle are the nicest, I had many happy years with them.
 
I've been in with Grey Crowned and Demoiselle, and only the Demoiselles were aggressive :p

It was springtime with a pair so maybe they were breeding/nesting? They hardly got too close and keepers kept them back when they did but they were displaying extremely aggressively towards anyone around them.

~Thylo
 
I have limited experience with Red-crowned and Demoiselles and seems like I got lucky with the individuals, as whenever I was in the exhibit, they were minding their own business.., I have also one-time experience with nesting Saruses and boy, that was something...
 
HOMIN96 said:
I have limited experience with Red-crowned and Demoiselles and seems like I got lucky with the individuals, as whenever I was in the exhibit, they were minding their own business.., I have also one-time experience with nesting Saruses and boy, that was something...
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So you had a Jurassic World like experience with them? Tell us!
 
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