Proteas, cranes, fish: South Africa's iconic species under threat

The blue crane, with its elegant bearing and bluish-grey plumage, is the national bird of the Rainbow Nation. It has historically been revered among the Zulu and Xhosa populations: as a reward for bravery, deserving warriors could receive one of the long wing feathers that trail gracefully behind it. However, the days of this large wading bird may be numbered in the country where it is virtually endemic. There is, according to the Mail & Guardian , “growing concern about its future” due to its declining population.

BirdLife South Africa, the bird conservation organization, has classified the species as “vulnerable” in its latest annual report . “This means that without significant conservation efforts, these species are likely to become threatened in the near future and face a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium term,” reports online media outlet Ground Up .

Climate change, poisoning, and collisions with power lines are among the reasons given for this trend. The data is particularly worrying in the Overberg region in the south of the country, where “an alarming 44% decline in the number of blue cranes between 2011 and 2025” was recorded, according to figures cited by the Mail & Guardian .

A risk of extinction that also affects other symbols of the country, such as the galjoen fish, on the local red list of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) due to overfishing. Proteas, with their majestic and very colorful flowers, are also affected. “These resilient species – which grow back after forest fires – are said to embody the spirit of a resurgent nation,” recalls the New York Times ’ T Magazine .

Although the royal protea, the national emblem, is currently safe and sound, "almost half of all protea species are endangered," the publication points out. Some are even critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List , an inventory of the world's threatened species.

Here too, climate change and the reduction of their habitat in the face of the expansion of agricultural plots are weighing on the survival of these species, which are largely found within the fynbos ecosystem, the unique plant formation located in the region around Cape Town.

Aware of the dangers hanging over this flower so evocative of the country, some residents do not hesitate to launch a fight for their preservation, like this 28-year-old young man, interviewed by the local newspaper The Witness . He created a farm to grow proteas outside the city of Pietermaritzburg. “I chose to do it on my own initiative,” he says, “with the idea of ​​perhaps one day helping to reintroduce these species to areas where they have disappeared, or to move them to new locations to see how they can adapt.”