Home Range And Habitat Study Of The Satellite-tracked Siberian Cranes (Grus Leucogeranus)

Siberian Crane(Grus leucogeranus)is listed as the national first class protected wild animal and a flagship species of wetland conservation and listed as critically endangered(CR)species on the IUCN Red List.The world population is estimated to be 3800?4000,the Siberian Crane is the only crane that listed as CR among the 15 kind of cranes in the global.At the same time,it is one of the three types of cranes who rely on wetland habitat.The global population can devided into three poputions that of eastern population,middle population and western populaiton,among which the eastern on counted most and alomost 95%of total Siberian Crane.They stopover at northeast of China in spring and fall,and winter at Poyang Lake.At present,the main threats facing this species are the degradation and loss of suitable habitats and food shortage caused by both natural and man-made factors.Migration routes,spacial distribution at stopover sites and wintering area,habitat characteristic,food plants and nutrient components are recognized.In this paper,using satellite tracking technology,the home range and habitat at stopover sites and wintering area have been studied,2 stopover sites are new found.We detected the nutritional composition analysis and energy of food plants at stopover sites,which aims to explain the habitat selection mechanism and habitat utilization from macro and micro perspectives,and then provide scientific evidence for Siberian Crane and their habita protecting.1.Study of home range of tracked Siberian CraneStopover sites are mainly in Momoge reserve,Tumuji reserve,the area between them,Xianghai reserve,Tongliao City and Hinggan League in east of Inner Mongolia.The home range area at spring stopover sites and fall stopover sites are different,but with no significance differenc(P>0.05).The home range area in 3 years showed the tendency of increase first and then decrease for MCP area,KDE 90%area and KDE 50%area,while the proportion of core area to major area decreased first then increased,which may be caused by reaching time to stopover sites of each tracked individuals and the food distribution.The main wintering areas are Poyang Lake reserve,Nanji Wetland Reserve,and Kangshan reserve,the areas out of reserves are Tiehe County and Litou Islet.During 2015?2017,there exsist differences in MCP area,KDE 90%area and KDE 50%area among different individuals and years,among which MCP area,KDE 90%area and KDE 50%area have a tendency of decreasing and then rising,while the area of KDE 50%/KDE 90%has the opposite trend.We also found that overlapping phenomenon among the home ranges at stopover sites and wintering area,in which the overlapping degree in springs is higher than that of in falls;the overlapping index of KDE 90%area in wintering area showed the Winter 2016>Winter 2017>Winter 2015,and the overlapping index of KDE 50%area is Winter 2015>Winter 2016>Winter 2017.2.Habitat study in stopover sites and wintering area of Siberian CraneThe stopover sites belonged to fresh lakes,herb marshes and farm lands located in Momoge,Tumuji National Nature Reserves and the area around the reserves in west Songnen Plain,in addition,the herb marshes in Keerqin area in Xiliaohe Plain.There are 3 habitat types in stopover sites:fresh water,herb marshes and farm lands,and we identified 11 plant species belonging to 7 orders and 9 families all over the plant types,in fresh water 9 species belonging to 7 orders,while that of herb marsh 11 species in 8 orders,in which main plants from Cyperaceae occupied highest.Important value of Scirpus nipponicus ranked highest among the vegetation in fresh water and herb marshes,in fresh water and herb marsh,Simpson index are0.59 and 0.68,Shannon-Wiener index 5.10 and 6.73,Margalef index 22.87 and 79.12,Pielou index 0.67 and 1.90 respectively,which indicated that herb marshes have higher heterogeneity and diversity of community species than fresh water;Conceivable food plants are S.nipponicus,S.planicumis,B.umbellatus,P.chinensis and corn.Physico-chemical analysis was carried out in root tubers of food plants,the results showed that there was mainly micro element such as B,Zn,Fe,P,Ca,Na,K and Mg,besides,energy materials such as protein,fat and starch.The energy that 3 habitat types fresh water,herb marsh and farm lands provided to Siberian cranes is 591.06 k J/m~2?1348.51 k J/m~2and 51.60 k J/m~2respectively.Lakes,shoal patches and farm lands are used by Siberian Crane,in which lakes has the highes proportion,secondly farm lands.The wintering duration in lakes(Z=0.114,P=0.909),shoal patches(Z=1.026,P=0.383)and farm lands(Z=0.800,P=0.517)has no significance.The samples taken in wintering area are Vallisneria spp.root tubers,rice and lotus roots,the number of food roots and dry weight have no significant difference among different years.