Population dynamics and habitat use of the Black-necked Crane (<i>Grus nigricollis</i>) in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin, Tibet, China

Ru Jia; Tian Ma; Fengjiang Zhang; Guogang Zhang; Dongping Liu; Jun Lu

doi:10.1186/s40657-019-0170-9

Volume 10 Issue 1

Nov. 2019

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Avian Research > 2019 > 10(1): 32. > DOI: 10.1186/s40657-019-0170-9

Ru Jia, Tian Ma, Fengjiang Zhang, Guogang Zhang, Dongping Liu, Jun Lu. 2019: Population dynamics and habitat use of the Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin, Tibet, China. Avian Research, 10(1): 32. DOI: 10.1186/s40657-019-0170-9

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Population dynamics and habitat use of the Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin, Tibet, China

Ru Jia^{1, 2, 3,},
Tian Ma^{1, 2, 3},
Fengjiang Zhang⁴,
Guogang Zhang^{1, 2, 3, ,},
Dongping Liu^{1, 2, 3, ,},
Jun Lu^{1, 2, 3}

1.
Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
2.
Key Laboratory of Forest Protection of State Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing 100091, China
3.
National Bird Banding Center of China, Beijing 100091, China
4.
Wildlife Conservation and Disease Surveillance Center of Liaoning Province, Dalian 116000, China

Funds:

the program from Forestry and Grassland Department of Tibet Autonomous Region

More Information

Corresponding author:
Guogang Zhang, zm7672@126.com

Dongping Liu, liudp77@sina.com
Received Date: 23 Feb 2019
Accepted Date: 14 Aug 2019
Available Online: 24 Apr 2022
Publish Date: 22 Aug 2019

Graphical Abstract

Abstract

Abstract

Background
The Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) is an internationally threatened crane living on the plateau, mainly in winter, in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin in Tibet, western China. In the past five years, some economic development projects have been conducted in this area, posing potential threats to the wintering populations of the cranes and their habitats. Therefore, the current population dynamics of wintering Black-necked Cranes and habitat suitability in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin were investigated.
Methods
Twenty counties were surveyed using the line transect method in December 2017 and January 2018, and we recorded the location, flock size, number of individuals, habitat types and presence of human disturbance in which they occurred. We compared the results from the middle wintering period in this survey with those from 2014.
Results
The highest number of cranes recorded was 8291, and the results showed that the cranes were mainly distributed in Lhaze, Namling, Samzhubze, and Lhunzub. A total of 577 and 495 flocks were recorded in the early and middle wintering periods, respectively. In the early wintering period, there were significant differences in the number of individuals across the different habitats, with crop stubble land and plowed land representing more than 30% of the total habitat utilization. In the middle wintering period, there were also significant differences in the number of individuals, and the utilization of crop stubble land represented over 60% of the total.
Conclusions
Wintering Black-necked Cranes mainly fed on spilled grains in stubble habitat after harvest. In the middle wintering period, some of the farmlands were plowed and irrigated, which resulted in food shortages in these areas, and the cranes tended to gather in mixed flocks of large size instead of as a single family. There were still considerable regional wintering populations decreases in Quxu, Nedong, and Sakya in 2018 compared with 2014, and these decreases were mainly due to some recently emerging threats, including farmlands being converted into areas of greenhouse cultivation, highway and railway construction, river dredging, the rapid development of the manufacturing and mining industries, and the lack of protection of important wintering sites.
- Black-necked Crane,
- Habitat use,
- Population dynamics,
- Tibet,
- Yarlung Tsangpo River basin

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The authors regret that Fig. 1 and its caption should be replaced as below.

Figure 1. The 35 national nature reserves, 16 wetlands of international importance, and 1 UNESCO world heritage site along China's coastal wetlands (till the end of 2022). Some national nature reserves are also wetlands of international importance. E, M, and L represent the national nature reserves that were designated in the 1980s, 1990s, and after 2000, respectively.

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In addition, the last sentence of the third paragraph of section "3.1. Policy and administration" should be:

To improve the conservation of key waterbird habitats in the Yellow Sea region, which have high conservation priority for migratory birds in the EAAF, coastal wetlands in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province have been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site, "Migratory bird sanctuaries along the coast of the Yellow Sea‒Bohai Gulf of China (Phase Ⅰ)", in 2019 (Fig. 1; World Heritage Committee, 2019), and 11 sites have been included in the list of Phase Ⅱ applications.

The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

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Population dynamics and habitat use of the Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin, Tibet, China