SIBERIAN CRANE WETLAND PROJECT The Siberian Crane’s SIBERIAN CRANE WETLAND PRO ECT Western/Central Asian Flyway

Research History In Western Siberia the Siberian Crane breed on the vast lowland wilderness east of the Ural Mountains in the basin of the mighty Ob River. The breeding area ranges from just south of the Arctic Circle, where a pair from the western/central population is known to have nested, to 1,000 km further to the south. In 1978 Dr. Ali Ashtiani of Iran’s Department of the Environment discovered about 12 Habitat of the Siberian Cranes wintering in the middle of a waterfowl trapping complex where guns central Siberian were banned. But their breeding grounds remained unknown until 1996 when Dr. Yuri Crane flock along Markin of the Oka Nature Reserve, Russia, and his Iranian colleagues, captured a male the Kunovat on the wintering grounds in Iran and equipped the bird with a satellite radio transmit- River in the Arc- ter. That June, Dr. Markin and Dr. Alexander Sorokin of the All Russian Institute for tic zone, Russia. Photo by Yuri Nature Conservation tracked the banded crane and discovered the breeding grounds of Markin and from the western flock just east of the southern end of the Urals. ICF archive In 1981, aerial surveys conducted by Dr. Sorokin and his team led to the historic dis- covery of the breeding grounds of the central flock in the basin of the Kunovat River, an eastern tributary of the Ob. These birds were eventually confirmed to be the well known cranes that wintered at Keoladeo National Park in north central India. Since these re- markable discoveries, the Siberian Crane central flock wintering in India declined from 75 birds in 1974 to just a single pair in 1996. That last pair disappeared in 2002. The wintering group of the Siberian Crane’s western flock in Iran remained steady at 10-12 birds from 1978 through 1998, then slowly declined to just a single male by February Breeding grounds of birds known to 2007. winter in Iran, at Konda-Alymka, Tyumen Region, Russia. Photo by Population Declines Yuri Markin The decline of Siberian Cranes in western Asia is undoubtedly attributed to widespread hunting along its flyways. Age-old traditions of crane hunting and trapping in Afghani- stan and Pakistan, and subsistence hunting in Central Asia, are perhaps primary factors The UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane leading to the demise of these elegant white birds. The migration route extends from Wetland Project (SCWP) is a six- the breeding area in a south-westerly direction to the Naurzum wetlands in northern year effort to protect a network of Kazakhstan, before diverging southwest to the Caspian Sea and southeast to India on globally important wetlands in journeys that traverse seven nations: Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Af- Asia that are of critical impor- ghanistan, Pakistan and India. tance for migratory waterbirds Although the central and western flocks have nearly disappeared from their known win- and other wetland biodiversity. tering areas, there have been reports by local people living near the breeding grounds The project uses the globally of groups of one to three cranes. In addition, groups of Siberian Cranes accounting for threatened Siberian Crane (Grus up to 7 birds have been reported from the staging areas in northern Kazakhstan and in leucogeranus) as a flagship species, the Volga River Delta in recent years. These reports provide hope that cranes survive in linking activities at 16 key wet- both populations at breeding and wintering locations yet to be dis-covered. lands along the species’ western and eastern flyways in Russia, Conservation Efforts Kazakhstan, Iran and China. An international effort has been underway to save this Critically Endangered species for two decades, coordinated under an agreement of the Convention on the Conserva- tion of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). These efforts have included a sustained release programme for captive bred birds in Russia and Iran, a major international project to safeguard the main breeding, staging and wintering areas of the western/central population, and development of a site network in Western/Central Asia under CMS. These efforts will benefit millions of other migratory waterbirds that rely on the same sites, as well as other wetland biodi- versity and local communities. Approximately 3,500 birds remain in the Sibe- rian Crane’s East Asian population.

Naurzum Lake System in North Kazakhstan The Siberian Crane’s Western/Central Asian Flyway is an important migration stopover for both the western and central flocks of the Siberian Crane. Photo by Evgeny Bragin

Fereydoon Kenar in Iran is the only known wintering site of the western Siberian Crane flock. Photo by Crawford Prentice

The last Siberian Crane in Keoladeo National Park in India in win- ter 2001/02. Photo by Elena Ilyashenko and N.C. Dhingra

Important breeding, migration and wintering sites of the Siberian Crane 1 - breeding site in Kunovat River Basin, Russia 2 - breeding site in Konda and Alymka Rivers Basin, Russia SIBERIAN CRANE WETLAND 3 - migration stopover in Naurzum Nature Reserve, Kazakhstan PRO ECT 4 - wintering site in Fereydoon Kenar, Iran 5 - former wintering site in Keoladeo National Park, India For more information on the SCWP, visit www.scwp.info or contact the International Crane Foundation, E11376 Shady Lane Rd, Baraboo WI, USA +1-608-356-9462 [email protected]