Cranes are large, long necked and long-legged birds within the order Gruiformes and the wider family Gruidae. The cranes are 15 species in total. Feeding

Cranes are termed as opportunistic feeders and are known to change their feeding pattern as per the seasons and as to the nutrients they are looking for. Their diet is varied, from small rodents, amphibians, fish, plants, berries, insects and grains.

Migration

Some crane populations and species are known to migrate over very long distances while there are others that hardly migrate. The species are known to be highly gregarious and forms big flocks when their numbers are equally sufficient.

Fossil Distribution

The cranes fossil record does leave a lot to be desired however. All the subfamilies of cranes were admittedly well distributed around 35 million years ago, with the present genera being about 20 million years old only. In fact the current cranes taxa are quite suggestive that they are of old world origin. The widest range of the species is centered in Eastern Africa even though there hardly are fossil records found in the region. In addition, there is a rather interesting fact from this area around about cranes. There is a peculiar observation that some many numbers of fossils of the Ciconiiformes type have been documented from the region, where these specific birds are presumed to have shared a lot of there older habitat with distinct cranes in older days gone by.

Myths and Folklore

There has been a tremendous association to the cranes lifestyle with different world myths and lore. For instance, the beauty of the crane as well as the spectacular mating dances have made the species to be intensely symbolic in lots of cultures with documented records running back to ancient ages gone by. The mythology surrounding cranes is widely held in regions such Southern Arabia, Aegean, Korea, Japan, and China as well as in the cultures of the native North American people. In Japan, there are documented facts of women crane dances 100 years old, while in Korea, there is a crane dance that is believed to have been performed within the Tongdosa Temple backyards, as early as 646 CE in the Silla Dynasty.

Even Aristotle was able to give a description of cranes migration in the ‘History of Animals’, saying that the crane fights between them and Pygmies along the sources of the river Nile has some people uttering untrue things. In this regard, Aristotle talks of untruthful the fact that cranes have a touchstone within them that can be used as a gold test once vomited. This is however plausible in some degree, since cranes might consume such gizzard stones from one area amidst regurgitating them on another region in an area where such stones are equally scarce.

Conservation

In addition, cranes have been found to be threatened although not endangered as critically as other animals in their range. In fact, it is the dangers facing the North American Whooping Cranes that led to legislation protecting the endangered species.