SIBERIAN CRANE WETLAND PROJECT The Siberian Crane’s SIBERIAN CRANE WETLAND PRO ECT Eastern Asian Flyway

Research History Although the Siberian Cranes are legendary birds in Asia, little was known about their biology and their habitat needs until recent decades. Dr. Vladimir Flint of the All Russian Research Institute for Nature Conservation and his team documented the ecology and behavior of Siberian Cranes on their breeding grounds located between the Yana and Kolyma Rivers in Eastern Siberia in Russia in the 1960s and ‘70s. The population was thought to number only a few hundred, until Dr. Zhou Fuchang In Eastern Siberia, the Siberian Crane and Dr. Ding Wining discovered the wintering grounds of these cranes in wetlands breeds across a huge territory in the Arctic Zone in Russia. Photo by Yuri along the middle Yangtze River in south-central China in 1980. Approximately 95% Markin of the population winters in one area – the Poyang Lake Basin in northern Jiangxi Province. Subsequent surveys, using improved techniques, have allowed estimates of the total population, with approximately 3,500 birds in recent winters. The population migrates along a 5,100 km migration route following the Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma River valleys to southern Yakutia and into northeastern China and far eastern Mongolia, with several resting areas and longer-term stopover points including Zhalong, Momoge, Xianghai, and Keerqin Nature Reserves before the birds reach the Poyang Lake in the Yangtze River Basin. Migration Routes Satellite telemetry is being used to identify spring migration routes, juvenile summering areas, and winter movement patterns within the Poyang Lake Basin. Two Siberian To learn more about the Siberian Crane chicks were marked in Yakutia in August 2008, and their routes can be followed Crane migration routes, 8 chicks were on the UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetland Project (SCWP) website at www.scwp. banded with color rings in 2005 and 2 info/imaps.html. Further efforts will be made to catch and mark cranes with satellite chicks fitted with transmitters in 2008. transmitters at Poyang Lake to study their movements around the wintering area. Photo by Alexander Sorokin Wetland conservation remains an enormous challenge in East Asia, due to high human populations and rapid economic growth. Since the 1950s, vast areas of wetlands in The UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane northeast China have been destroyed to create farmland. Dams used to manage water Wetland Project (SCWP) is a six- resources for agriculture and cities can dramatically alter natural water cycles and year effort to protect a network of effectively destroy remaining wetland habitats of importance for cranes and other globally important wetlands in waterbirds. Asia that are of critical impor- tance for migratory waterbirds and other wetland biodiversity. The project uses the globally threatened Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus) as a flagship species, linking activities at 16 key wet- lands along the species’ western Siberian Cranes at a stopover in Liaoning Province, and eastern flyways in Russia, China. Photo by Zhou Haixiang Kazakhstan, Iran and China. Conservation Efforts The survival of the eastern population can be attributed to the protection provided to both the cranes and their key wetland habitats in Russia and China, including the main breeding range at Kytalyk and key staging areas in northeast China. Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve protects some of the most important wintering sites in this area, but the birds also use many sites outside Zhalong National Nature Reserve. Photo by the reserve, some recently protected and others unprotected. Su Liying Under the SCWP, conservation actions are being taken to help assure the long- term survival of Siberian Crane habitats in the breeding grounds in Russia, as well as the staging areas and wintering site in China. Actions focus on strengthening the participatory management of protected areas, developing systematic monitoring programmes, and addressing key threats such as water shortages, unsustainable land uses, impacts of economic development Momoge National Nature Reserve. Photo by projects, etc. Water management plans have been developed for four sites in Sergei Sleptsov northeast China to ensure the survival of valuable wetland habitats. Ten years of ecological research at Poyang Lake on cranes, food plants and water levels is being used to inform decision-making on development programmes. The Convention on Migratory Species Memorandum of Understanding on the Siberian Crane provides a framework for conservation action and the long term basis for international cooperation towards the survival of this magnificent bird. Keerqin National Nature Reserve. Photo by Eastern Flyway of the Siberian Crane Keerqin NNR staff

Migration stopover sites of the Siberian Crane in National Nature Reserves in China

95% of the eastern Siberian Crane population winters in the Poyang Lake Basin. Photo by Crawford Prentice

SIBERIAN CRANE WETLAND PRO ECT

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]