Telemetry Study On Migration Ecology Of Oriental Stork(Ciconia Boyciana)

In the movement of many biological phenomena,the seasonal migration of birds has attracted the attention of the world.At the same time,birds also provide a variety of services for the ecosystem,such as seed transmission,pest control and so on,which have an important impact on human life.Therefore,it is very important to study the migration routes,stopover sites and the interaction with environmental factors,which is the key to protect migratory birds.The Oriental Stork is a national animal protection in China,and is listed as "endangered" in the IUCN red list.The number in the world is about 3000.They mainly breed in the Far East of Russia and the northeast of China,winter mainly in the East and southeast of China.Based on satellite tracking,the migration ecology of Oriental Storks is studied.The main conclusions are as follows:Using GPS/GSM transmitters,we tracked the full migrations of 18 juvenile Oriental Storks during 2015-2018 to compare differences in autumn and spring migration patterns,and combined the satellite telemetry data with the National Center for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis data to explain the relationship between 850 mbar wind vectors and seasonal differences in travel speed.Differences in tailwinds contributed to significant differences in daily average Oriental Storks travel speed in spring(258.11±64.8 km/day)compared to autumn(172.23±49.7 km/day,p<0.001).Storks stopped significantly more often in autumn than spring(1.78±1.1 versus 1.06±0.9,p<0.05),but stopover duration(15.52±12.4 versus 16.30± 15.1 days,respectively,p=0.3)did not differ significantly.Tailwinds at 850 mbar pressure level(extracted from the National Center of Environmental Prediction Reanalysis data archive)significantly affected daily flying speed during spring and autumn migration.Tailwind conditions in spring(mean 4.40±5.6 m/s)were always more favourable than in autumn when they received no net benefit(0.48±5.6 m/s,p<0.001).Despite mean spring migration duration being less than autumn(27.52± 15.9 versus 32.7±13.4 days,p=0.17),large individual variation meant that this duration did not differ significantly from each other.In this study,we used the complete migration data of 39 juvenile Oriental Storks obtained by satellite telemetry technology,and obtained the complete migration routes of Heilong River-Yangtze River and Heilong River-Bohai Bay population.We used statistical analysis method to compare the migration strategies.The results showed that the migration speed of Heilong River-Bohai Bay population in spring was faster than that autumn(211.13±118.16 km/day and 92.41±61.69 km/day,P<0.05),and the migration duration in spring was shorter(11.22±8.72 days and 28.00±21.0 days,P<0.05).he travel speed of spring migration was faster than autumn(280.40±61.95 km/day and 185.49±71.95 km/day,P<0.05),and the travel time was shorter than autumn(5.85±2.47 days and 10.25±6.6 days,P<0.05),which was consistent with the traditional migration theory.There is little difference between the long-distance and short-distance migration duration in autumn,but the spring migration duration of long-distance migration is more three times than short-distance migration,which may be due to the small range of activity of short-distance migration.In this study,we combined the satellite tracking data of Oriental Storks in breeding,stopover and wintering period with the global surface cover data and national natural reserve respectively.The results showed that Heilong River-Yangtze River population and Heilong River-Bohai Bay population used water body,farmland and grassland.During breeding,stopover and wintering period,the protected proportion of Heilong River-Yangtze River population are 29.4%,34.9%and 50.5%,and the protected proportion of Heilong River-Bohai Bay population are 25.4%,15.1%and 10.9%.It is suggested that Heilong River-Songhua River Basin and Yongdingxin River-Chaobai River Basin should be added as new reserve.Based on the satellite tracking data,this paper studies the migration ecology of Oriental Storks,reveals the migration pattern of long-distance and short-distance migration,analyzes the influence of tailwind on travel speed of long-distance migration,studies the habitat use and protection status in different stages of annual life cycle,and puts forward protection suggestions.The results provide a scientific basis for species protection.