{"id":363449,"date":"2026-03-25T00:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363449\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T00:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:35:10","slug":"japans-red-crowned-crane-no-longer-a-threatened-species-after-years-of-conservation-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363449\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Red-Crowned Crane No Longer a Threatened Species after Years of Conservation Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJapan Data<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEnvironment<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tMar 25, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAfter a recovery in the red-crowned crane population, Japan\u2019s Ministry of the Environment has downgraded the status of the birds from \u201cthreatened\u201d to \u201cnear-threatened,\u201d based on a low risk of extinction.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Low Risk of Extinction<\/p>\n

On March 17, Japan\u2019s Ministry of the Environment released the latest update of its threatened species list. Having sufficiently recovered in numbers, the tanch\u014d, or red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) was downgraded from \u201cthreatened\u201d to \u201cnear-threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

This means that there is now a low risk of the species becoming extinct.<\/p>\n

\"Red-crowned<\/a>
Red-crowned cranes gather at an observation spot in the north of the Kushiro Wetland National Park. Photograph taken on January 30, 2026, in Tsurui, Akan, Hokkaid\u014d. (\u00a9\u00a0Jiji)<\/p>\n

Although the species was thought to have died out due to overhunting during the Meiji era (1868-1912), several dozen red-crowned cranes were discovered in 1924 inhabiting the remote areas of the Kushiro Wetland in Hokkaid\u014d. Only 33 birds were recorded in a wintering habitat survey conducted in 1952, the year Kushiro tanch\u014d were designated as a Special Natural Monument of Japan. Since then, there have been active conservation and feeding initiatives carried out by volunteers, mainly in the village of Tsurui and the surrounding Akan district, and it was confirmed in the 2024 wintering habitat survey (conducted in late January 2025) that there is now a population of 1,927 red-crowned cranes. This led to the assessment of a low risk of extinction.<\/p>\n

\"Red-Crowned<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The tanch\u014d is a large species of crane found in East Asia and southeastern Russia. Cranes hold deep cultural meaning for Japanese people. The proverb tsuru wa sennen, kame wa mannen (cranes live for a thousand years, turtles for ten thousand) signifies longevity and the bird is often used as a symbol of good fortune on family crests, gift wrapping, and decorative cords. The ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797\u20131858) included scenes of red-crowned cranes that had migrated south in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a series of pictures of the city now known as Tokyo, which indicates that the birds were once found on the island of Honsh\u016b<\/a> as well as Hokkaid\u014d. Incidentally, tanch\u014dzuru, the full name in Japanese for red-crowned cranes, is formed using the kanji \u4e39 tan (red), \u9802 ch\u014d (head), and \u9db4 tsuru (crane).<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
(\u00a9\u00a0PhotoAC)<\/p>\n

\"Japanese<\/a>
Japanese deer join the cranes in their feeding grounds. Photograph taken in 2017. (\u00a9\u00a0Nippon.com)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Data Sources<\/p>\n

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo \u00a9\u00a0PhotoAC.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t nature<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t birds<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan Data Environment Mar 25, 2026 After a recovery in the red-crowned crane population, Japan\u2019s Ministry of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[15638,61,60,3738,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-363449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-birds","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-nature","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}