Demoiselle crane

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Demoiselle crane
Flock at Tal Chhapar Sanctuary, Churu, Rajasthan

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Gruidae
Genus: Grus
Species:
G. virgo
Binomial name
Grus virgo
(Linnaeus, 1758)
[originally Ardea]
Range of G. virgo
  Breeding
  Passage
  Non-breeding
Synonyms
  • Anthropoides virgo (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Ardea virgo Linnaeus, 1758
  • Grus ornata Brehm, CL, 1855

The demoiselle crane (Grus virgo) is a species of

Eurosiberia, 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.[3]

Description

Portrait

The demoiselle is 85–100 cm (33.5–39.5 in) long, 76 cm (30 in) tall and has a 155–180 cm (61–71 in) wingspan. It weighs 2–3 kg (4.4–6.6 lb). It is the smallest species of crane.[4][5] The demoiselle crane is slightly smaller than the common crane but has similar plumage. It has a long white neck stripe and the black on the foreneck extends down over the chest in a plume.

It has a loud

trumpeting call
, higher-pitched than the common crane. Like other cranes it has a dancing display, more balletic than the common crane, with less leaping.

The demoiselle was so named by Queen Marie Antoinette, for its delicate and maiden-like appearance.[6]

In culture

Demoiselle cranes (Grus virgo) in Jodhpur Bishnoi's Village, Rajasthan, India
Chick with parent at Hellabrunn Zoo

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.[7]

Demoiselle cranes at Khichan, Rajasthan India

The name koonj is derived from the

Hindu epic Ramayana, it is claimed that his first verse was inspired by the sight of a hunter kill the male of a pair of demoiselle[citation needed] cranes that were courting. Observing the lovelorn female circling and crying in grief, he cursed the hunter in verse. Since tradition held that all poetry prior to this moment had been revealed rather than created by man, this verse concerning the demoiselle cranes is regarded as the first human-composed meter.[8][dubious – discuss
]

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.[9]

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22692081A131927771.en
    . Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. ^
    onomatopoeic
    , deriving from the Sanskrit 'kraunch', the origin of the word crane itself ...
  4. ^ Demoiselle Crane, Int. Crane Foundation
  5. ISBN 978-0-19-563731-1
    .
  6. ^ "Demoiselle Crane | International Crane Foundation". www.savingcranes.org. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  7. ISBN 978-81-317-0417-2
    . ... kunj: more properly koonj is a demoiselle crane. The word is used metaphorically for a young bride far from her home ...
  8. ISBN 978-81-7650-190-3
    . ... Valmiki saw a pair of kraunch (cranes) birds making love. Suddenly, a hunter killed the male kraunch with an arrow. Valmiki was moved by the cries of the female ... Valmiki's pain was expressed through a shloka ... The first man-composed meter ...
  9. ISBN 978-0-595-40188-8
    . ... The second day: Two kraunchas ... Yudhishtira decides to form his legions in the vyuha called the krauncha, after the crane ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anthropoides virgo.
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