The demoiselle crane ( Grus virgo) is a species of crane found in central Palearctic, ranging from the Black Sea to Mongolia and Northeast China. There is also a small breeding population in Turkey. These cranes are migratory birds. Birds from western Eurasia will spend the winter in Africa while the birds from Asia, Mongolia and China will spend the winter in the Indian subcontinent. The bird is symbolically significant in the culture of India, where it is known as koonj or kurjaa.
Taxonomy
The demoiselle crane was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his
Systema Naturae. He placed it with the herons and cranes in the
genus Ardea and coined the binomial name
Ardea virgo. He specified the type locality as the orient but this has been restricted to India.
Linnaeus cited the accounts by earlier authors. The English naturalist
Eleazar Albin had described and illustrated the "Numidian crane" in 1738. Albin explained that: "This Bird is called Demoiselles by reason of certain ways of acting that it has, wherein it seems to imitate the Gestures of a Woman who affects a Grace in her Walking, Obeisances, and Dancing".
Linnaeus also cited the English naturalist George Edwards who had described and illustrated the "Demoiselle of Numidia" in 1750.
The name "la demoiselle de Numidie" had been used in 1676 by the French naturalist
Claude Perrault.
The demoiselle crane is now placed in the genus
Grus that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The species is treated as
monospecific: no
subspecies are recognised.
The genus name
Grus is the
Latin word for a "crane". The specific epithet
virgo is Latin meaning "maiden".
Some authorities place this species together with the closely related
blue crane (
Grus paradisea) in the genus
Anthropoides.
Description
The demoiselle is long, tall and has a wingspan. It weighs . It is the smallest species of crane.[ Demoiselle Crane, Int. Crane Foundation]
It has a loud bird song, higher-pitched than the common crane. Like other cranes it has a dancing display, more balletic than the common crane, with less leaping.
BMehta-Demoiselle Crane.jpg|In the village of Khichan, Rajasthan India
Jungfernkranich NbG Porträt.jpg|Portrait
The Demoiselle Cranes ( Grus virgo).jpg|Near Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
Demoiselle crane (Grus virgo) adult and chick at Tierpark Hellabrunn, April 2024 10.jpg|Chick with parent at Hellabrunn Zoo, Munich, Germany
Distribution and habitat
The demoiselle crane breeds in central Eurasia from the Black Sea east to Mongolia and northeast China. It breeds in open habitats with sparse vegetation, usually near water. In winter it migrates either to the Sahel region of Africa, from Lake Chad eastwards to southern Ethiopia, or to western regions of the Indian subcontinent. There was previously a small population in Turkey and an isolated resident population in the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa. These are both now extinct. On its Indian wintering grounds it forms large flocks which gather on agricultural land. It roosts at night in shallow open water.
Behaviour and ecology
Breeding
Eggs are laid between April and May. The minimal nest is placed on an open patch of grass or bare ground. The clutch is normally two eggs. These are laid at daily intervals and incubation begins after the first egg. Incubation is by both sexes but mainly by the female. The eggs hatch asynchronously after 27 to 29 days. The chicks are pale brown above and greyish white below. They are fed and cared for by both parents. The fledgeling period is between 55 and 65 days. They first breed when they are two years old.[ Also available from the Internet Archive here (registration required).]
In culture
The demoiselle crane is known as the koonj/ kurjan in the languages of North India, and figure prominently in the literature, poetry and idiom of the region. Beautiful women are often compared to the koonj because its long and thin shape is considered graceful. Metaphorical references are also often made to the koonj for people who have ventured far from home or undertaken hazardous journeys.
The name koonj is derived from the Sanskrit word kraunch, which is a cognate Indo-European term for crane itself.
The flying formation of the koonj during migrations also inspired infantry formations in ancient India. The Mahabharata epic describes both warring sides adopting the koonj formation on the second day of the Kurukshetra War.
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