The Blue Crane occurs predominantly in South Africa, with the only other small populations being located in Etosha Pans (northern Namibia) and the western parts of Swaziland (Brown 1992). While locally abundant in limited parts of its range, it is now rare in most parts. Its population may be divided into three subpopulations, with one portion of the population centred in the Mpumalanga, north-eastern Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal regions into the northern parts of the Eastern Cape. A second occurs in the central Karoo situated within the Northern Cape extending into the Karoo regions of the southern Free State and Eastern cape, and the last in the south Western Cape (Overberg / Swartland regions), where it is a relatively recent colonizer of agricultural areas (Allan 1993). The species range has diminished from the "old" Transkei region, and occurs as an occasional vagrant in Lesotho and Botswana (Allan 1993). Although this species is still found throughout much of its historic range, it has experienced significant and rapid local declines over the last twenty years. The most recent estimate puts the population at between 20 000 and 21 000 individuals.