Flying Japanese Crane, or "Tancho",
CRITICALLY THREATENED:
Siberian Crane Kyushu (during FONT winter tours in 1997, 2000, 2001,& 2004)
Grus leucogeranus
The Siberian Crane is a rarity in Japan. On occasion (as during the 4 years noted above), a single individual winters at Arasaki, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, with the combined approximately 10,000 Hooded & White-naped Cranes.
The Siberian Crane is now classified as "critical" because it is expected to undergo an extremely rapid decline in the near future, primarily as a result of the destruction and degradation of wetlands in the areas of its migration and wintering grounds. The wintering site, holding 95% of the population, in China, is threatened by changes that will come about with the Three Gorges Dam project.
The total population of the species is between 2,500 & 3,000, making it, at this time, the 3rd rarest crane in the world.
A Siberian Crane with White-naped Cranes in Kyushu, Japan
It is probably, at this time, the most threatened of the world's cranes.
Until just over 20 years ago, in 1981, the Siberian Crane was believed to be even more rare, and endangered. It was in that year that about 800 birds were discovered to be wintering at Lake Poyan, China's largest freshwater lake, along the Yangtze River. With that, the known population nearly doubled. Subsequent field surveys showed the total population of the species to be from 2,500 to 3,000 birds.
Still the outlook for the species is precarious. According to the crane specialist, George Archibald, "from the tundra to the subtropics, few endangered species involve so many complex problems in so many countries as does the Siberian Crane".
There are 3 populations of Siberian Cranes. All but a few of the maybe 3,000 birds belong to the eastern population, which breeds in northeastern Siberia, and winters along the Yangtze River in China.
Another very small central population breeds in the lower basin of the Kunovat River in western Siberia, and winters in the Indian state of Rajaasthan (most regularly in the Keoladeo National Park). When this population was observed at its wintering grounds in 1992-93, it included just 5 birds. Only 4 birds were observed at the Kunovat breeding grounds in 1995.
The western population (also very small and threatened), which apparently held at 8 to 14 birds in the late 1980's and early 1990's, has wintered at a single site along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in Iran. The exact location of the breeding grounds of that population is unknown, but it's thought to be in the extreme northern portion of European Russia.
Thus, 2 populations of this species are extremely vulnerable (on the verge of extinction). These populations have continually declined from just over 100 birds in the 1960's (when they were discovered).
The Siberian Cranes that have occurred in Japan as vagrants have been wanderers, on occasion, from the larger eastern population of the species that normally winters in China.
Actually, in the past, the Siberian Crane was a common winter visitor in Japan on Kyushu prior to the Mejii Era. Throughout the 20th Century, it became an accidental, but there were some occurrences from Hokkaido south to Okinawa. Most in Japan, however, continued to be on Kyushu. Interestingly, there were single birds in Hokkaido in Oct-Dec 1977 and May-Sep 1985. The latter was a summering bird in the Kushiro district, where the resident Japanese population of Red-crowned Cranes reside.
Where Siberian Cranes breed, huge distances separate nesting pairs. Within each 1000 square kilometers in the breeding range, there are only 1 or 2 pairs of cranes.
The Siberian is the most aquatic of all cranes, exclusively using wetlands for nesting, feeding, and roosting. The nests are in bogs and marshes. In migration and in wintering areas, the bird prefers to feed and roost in shallow wetlands. Preferred foods are roots, sprouts, and stems of sedges and other aquatic plants. It seldom forages above the water line.
Prosper Co. Ltd Japan
Leading Car Dealer
Please contact me:
Ms. Ai Tamaki
Sales Representative
Office Tel #: +81-50-5539-9816
