Using Tracking Data to Identify Gaps in Knowledge and Conservation of the Critically Endangered Siberian Crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus)

Abstract

The critically endangered Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) is the world's third most endangered species of crane. Despite the enhanced conservation actions in recent years, there are pieces of evidence that suggest that its population is continuously decreasing. To gain insights into the possible causes of the population decline, we tracked nine Siberian cranes in Russia and Mongolia using GPS transmitters. We obtained migration episodes based on over 0.31 million subsequent locations from 3283 bird days between June 1995 and December 2021. Siberian cranes migrated an average of 5604 ± 362 km in spring from wintering to breeding areas and a mean of 5265 ± 454 km from breeding to wintering areas. We identified 35 staging sites along the migration corridor, including 17 critical staging sites at which birds staged for >14 days and 18 stopover sites that supported individuals for more than two days within a ca. 200 km-wide migratory corridor. Of the areas used by the tagged cranes, 77% of the breeding areas in Russia, 55% of the staging areas, 99% of the non-breeding summering area in Mongolia, and 50% of the wintering areas in Poyang Lake in China lay outside the current protected area network. Although we should be prudent about interpreting the conservation gaps of the entire population from only a few tracked birds, these results strongly suggest that the current protection network for this numerically rare species is inadequate, requiring urgent review.

Migration Pattern, Habitat Use, and Conservation Status of the Eastern Common Crane (Grus grus lilfordi) from Eastern Mongolia

“…The duration of the autumn migration (49.6 ± 32.8) is longer than the duration of the spring migration (28.5 ± 22.4), which is consistent with the research conducted on the Western common crane in Europe [30,33]. Additionally, compared to other species of cranes, we found that the migration pattern of the Eastern common crane is most similar to that of the Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus), which uses the same flyway in east Asia [28]. However, it is different from the migration pattern of White-naped cranes (Antigone vipio), which also migrate from Eastern Mongolia [34].…”

“…Stopover sites were identified as places where birds remained stationary during the migration for more than two days [25]. Sites where the cranes stayed for more than 14 days were determined to be "critical stopover sites" [27,28].…”

Integrated Movement Models for Individual Tracking and Species Distribution Data

“…Similarly, there is a growing interest in estimating underlying, or latent, behavioral states based on movement quantities related to locations of an individual through time, typically referred to in the movement literature as hidden Markov-models (McClintock et al 2012). These advances in data collection and analysis have increased our understanding of the ecology and evolution of migratory behavior (Mueller et al 2013; Gu et al 2021), conservation of at risk species and populations (Liang et al 2023), connectivity of migratory populations (Alheit and Bakun 2009; Kot et al 2022), optimal habitats to prioritize for conservation (Yi et al 2022), movement of pathogens (Takekawa et al 2023), and ways in which species respond to climate change (Youngflesh et al 2021; Horton et al 2023).…”

Satellite Telemetry Insights into the Winter Habitat Use and Movement Ecology of Common and Demoiselle Cranes

“…Among migratory birds, cranes have been widely studied using satellite telemetry across most of their range [12][13][14][15][16]. However, in India, the use of satellite telemetry to study birds is limited.…”