Siberian Crane
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| Grus leucogeranus Pallas, 1773 |
The Siberian Crane, Grus leucogeranus, also known as the Siberian White Crane or the Snow Crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes.
This species breeds in arctic Russia in Yakutia and western Siberia. It is a long distance migrant. The eastern population winters on the Yangtze River and Lake Poyang in China, the central population at Keoladeo National Park, India (the last Siberian Crane in this population was observed in 2002), and the western population in Fereydoon Kenar in Iran. It breeds and winters in wetlands, where it feeds on the shoots, roots and tubers of aquatic plants.
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[edit] Description
This is a large white crane, typically 4.9-8.6 kg (10.8-19 lbs), 140 cm (55 in), and 210-230 cm (83-91 in) across the wings. Large males can exceed 152 cm (60 inches) and weigh over 10 kg (22 lbs). Adults are all white, except for a dark red mask extending from the bill to behind the eye and black primary wing feathers. It has a yellow iris and reddish legs. The male is slightly larger than the female. Juveniles have a feathered mask and buff or cinnamon plumage. The voice is flute-like and musical.
A O Hume examined over twenty specimens that he collected and found only aquatic plants in their stomachs. They are however noted to pick up beetles and birds eggs.[1]
[edit] Status
The status of this crane is critical, as it is expected to undergo a rapid population decline in the near future. The wintering site in China holding an estimated 98% of the population is threatened by hydrological changes caused by the Three Gorges Dam and other water development projects. The world population is estimated to be around 3,200.
Historic records from India suggest that a number of them wintered there in the past. In fact, Ustad Mansur, a 17th century court artist of Jehangir,[2] was the first man to accurately paint the Siberian Crane.[3] However, the number of birds wintering in India has steadily declined and the birds are no longer found there.
Mr. Rutledge of Entally told me that for twenty years he tried unsuccessfully to get live specimens of this crane, but did not succeed till a few years ago, when he and one of the native dealers got so many that the market was quite glutted, and many were sent to Europe. Since then the bird got scarce again, so this was evidently only a temporary invasion.
—Frank Finn, Frank Finn in How to know the Indian waders. 1906
Satellite telemetry was used to track the migration of a flock that wintered in Iran. They were noted to rest on the eastern end of the Volga delta.[4] Satellite telemetry was also used to track the migration of the eastern population in the mid 1990s, leading to the discovery of new resting areas along the species' flwyay in eastern Russia and China.[5] Researchers are currently trackng two Siberian Cranes banded in Yakutia, Russia and northern Iran, to learn more about their migration routes and summering areas along the eastern and western flyways. The Siberian Crane is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies and is subject of the Memorandum of Understanding concerning Conservation Measures for the Siberian Crane concluded under the Bonn Convention.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Quinton W. H. St. (1921) The white Asiatic crane. The Avicultural Magazine 12(3):3-4 scan
- ^ Verma, S. P. 1999. Mughal Painter of Flora and Fauna Ustad Mansur. Abhinav Publications.
- ^ Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, pp 14.
- ^ Kanai, Y., Nagendran, M., Ueta, M., Markin, Y., Rinne, J., Sorokin, A.G., Higuchi, H., Archibald, G.W. 2002 Discovery of breeding grounds of a Siberian Crane Grus leucogeranus flock that winters in Iran, via satellite telemetry. Bird Conservation International 12 (4):327-333
- ^ Kanai, Y., Mutsuyuki, U., Germogenov, N., Negandran, M., Mita, N., Higuchi, H. 2002 Migration routes and important resting areas of Siberian cranes Crus leucogeranus between northeastern Siberian and China as revealed by satellite tracking. Biological Conservation 106 (2002):339-346
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2006). Grus leucogeranus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
- Protection of siberian cranes in the Armizon marshes, Tyumen Oblast: [1]
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Siberian Crane |
- International Crane Foundation's Siberian Crane page
- BirdLife Species Factsheet
- Siberian Crane Flyway Coordination The Siberian Crane Flyway Coordination (SCFC) enhances communication among the large network of scientists, governmental agencies, biologists, private organizations, and citizens involved with Siberian Crane conservation in Eurasia.
- Siberian Crane Wetland Project The Siberian Crane Wetland Project (SCWP) is a six-year effort to sustain the ecological integrity of a network of globally important wetlands in Asia that are of critical importance for migratory waterbirds and other wetland biodiversity, using the globally threatened Siberian Crane as a flagship species.
- Three White Cranes, Two Flyways, One World An educational website that links schools along the eastern crane flyway in the United States with schools along the eastern flyways of the Siberian and Red-crowned Cranes in Russia and China.
