Habitat Use Of White-naped Crane(Grus Vipio) In Zhalong Wetland

The nest building, nest-site selection, territory area, feeding habitat selection and flocking habitat of White-naped Crane(Grus vipio) was investigated from March to October 2007 by the field survey methods of radio tracking ,fixed-spot observation, GPS positioning, plot sampling measurement, factor measurement ,etc, and the date proceeding methods of Independent sampling test, the principal component analysis, logistic regression analysis and combining geographical information systems. The results are as follows:The White-naped Crane prefers to select reed marsh (100%) as nest building site, the height of reed stubble, density of vegetation, water depth, and distance to human disturbance are mainly restrictive factors in nest-site habitat selection.Through comparison of the different periods of habitat using of the White-naped Crane, we can conclude that: water depth, distance to water and to the human disturbance are the three main factors that restrict the habitat selection of the White-napped Crane.The territory area : the territory area of the wild White-naped Crane is 1.11±0. 272 sq.km while the semi-domestic White-naped Crane is 0.665±0.148 sq.km.The main habitat condition of the White-naped Crane is reed marsh. Because reed is the dominance vegetation in ZhangLong, so the relational factors which are determinated by reed have not the decisive effect on the habitat selection of the White-naped Crane. It means that the high and density of vegetation, remnant reed cluster, etc, are not important to the habitat selection of the White-naped Crane. During this research we have found that the depth of all nests of the White-naped Crane is between about 5 to 25 centimeters, the distance of water is less than 100 meters, the feeding habitat selection is near by the water, so we can conclude that water is the one of the most important restrictive factors in habitat selection of the White-naped Crane. Otherwise there are more fishing in those years, the influence of human action on the habitat selection is more and more serious. Through the nest-site selection of the White-naped Crane and the distance between feeding site and the human disturbance is more than 0.6 kilometers, we can get that the distance to human disturbance is one of the significant factors that restrict the habitat choice of the White-napped Crane.Through comparison of the feeding site area and territory area of the wild White-naped Cranes and semi-domestic White-naped Cranes, the connection between the territory area and enough food in feeding site is reverse, the more food ,the smaller territory area; Without enough food, the size of territory area is enlarged .It means that the less food, the larger feeding site area, and then the larger habitat area; whereas the more abundant food, comparatively the territory area is smaller.