TheSiberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus), also known as theSiberian white crane or thesnow crane, is abird of the family Gruidae, thecranes. They are distinctive among the cranes: adults are nearly allsnowy white, except for their blackprimary feathers that are visible in flight, and with twobreeding populations in the Arctictundra of western andeastern Russia. The eastern populationsmigrate during winter to China, while the western population winters inIran and (formerly) inBharatpur, India.
Among the cranes, they make the longest distancemigrations. Their populations, particularly those in the western range, have declined drastically in the 20th century due tohunting along their migration routes andhabitat degradation. The world population was estimated in 2010 at about 3,200 birds, mostly belonging to the eastern population with about 93% of them wintering in thePoyang Lake basin in China, a habitat that may be altered by theThree Gorges Dam.[needs update]
The Siberian crane wasformally described byPeter Simon Pallas in 1773 and given thebinomial nameGrus leucogeranus.[3][4] Thespecific epithet is derived from the classical Greek wordsleukos for "white" andgeranos for a "crane".[5]Ustad Mansur, a 17th-century court artist and singer ofJahangir, had illustrated a Siberian crane about 100 years earlier.[6] The genusMegalornis was used for the cranes byGeorge Robert Gray and this species was included in it, whileRichard Bowdler Sharpe suggested a separation fromGrus and used the genusSarcogeranus.[7][8][9] The Siberian crane lacks the complextracheal coils found in most other cranes but shares this feature with thewattled crane. The unison call differed from that of most cranes and some authors suggested that the Siberian crane belonged in the genusBugeranus along with the wattled crane. Comparisons of the DNA sequences of cytochrome-b however suggest that the Siberian crane is basal among theGruinae and the wattled crane is retained as the sole species in the genusBugeranus and placed as a sister to theAnthropoides cranes.[10][11]
Amolecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that the genusGrus, as then defined, waspolyphyletic.[12] In the resulting rearrangement to createmonophyletic genera, the Siberian crane was moved to the resurrected genusLeucogeranus.[13] The genusLeucogeranus had been introduced by the French biologistCharles Lucien Bonaparte in 1855.[14]
Adults of both sexes have a pure white plumage except for the blackprimaries,alula and primarycoverts. Thefore-crown, face and side of head is bare and brick red, thebill is dark and the legs are pinkish. Theiris is yellowish. Juveniles are feathered on the face and the plumage is dingy brown. There are no elongated tertial feathers as in some other crane species.[15] During breeding season, both the male and female cranes are often seen with mud streaking their feathers; they may intentionally smear mud on their feathers, which has been hypothesized to aidcamouflage on thenest. The call is very different from thetrumpeting of most cranes and is agoose-like high pitched whistlingtoyoya. This is a fairly large species of crane, typically weighing 4.9–8.6 kg (11–19 lb) and standing about 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) tall. The wingspan is reportedly from 210 to 260 cm (6 ft 11 in to 8 ft 6 in) and length is 115–127 cm (45–50 in). Males are on average larger than females.[a] The average weight of adults in one study was 6.81 kg (15.0 lb) while juvenile birds were slightly heavier on average at 7.1 kg (16 lb).[22] There is a single record of an outsized male of this species weighing 15 kg (33 lb). Usually, this crane is usually slightly smaller in weight and height than some other cranes, particularly thesarus crane,wattled crane andred-crowned crane.[23]
Thebreeding area of the Siberian crane formerly extended between theUrals andOb river south to theIshim andTobol rivers and east to theKolyma region. The populations declined with changes inlanduse, the draining of wetlands foragricultural expansion and hunting on their migration routes. The breeding areas in modern times are restricted to two widely disjunct regions. The western area in theriver basins of the Ob,Konda andSossva and to the east a much larger population inYakutia between theYana and theAlazeya rivers.[17] Like most cranes, the Siberian crane inhabits shallowmarshlands and wetlands and will often forage in deeper water than other cranes. They show very highsite fidelity for both their wintering and breeding areas, making use of the same sites year after year.[15] The western population winters in Iran and some individuals formerly wintered in India south toNagpur and east toBihar. The eastern populations winter mainly in thePoyang Lake area in China.[17]
Siberian cranes are widely dispersed in their breeding areas and are highlyterritorial. They maintain feeding territories in winter but may form small and looseflocks, and gather closer at their winterroosts. They are verydiurnal, feeding almost all throughout the day. When feeding onsubmerged vegetation, they often immerse their heads entirely underwater. Whencalling, the birds stretch their neck forward.[17] The contexts of several calls have been identified and several of thesevary with sex.Individual variation is very slight and most calls have a dominant frequency of about 1.4 kHz.[24] The unison calls, duets betweenpaired males and female however are more distinctive with marked differences across pairs.[25] The female produces a higher pitched call which is the "loo" in the duetted "doodle-loo" call. Pairs will walk around other pairs to threaten them and drive them away from their territory.[17] In captivity, one individual was recorded to have lived for nearly 62 years[26] while another lived for 83 years.[27]
These cranes areomnivorous with a tendency to plant matter. In the summer grounds they feed on a range of plants including the roots of hellebore (Veratrum misae), seeds ofEmpetrum nigrum as well as small rodents likelemmings andvoles,earthworms, andfish. They were earlier thought to be predominantly fish eating on the basis of theserrated edge of their bill, but later studies suggest that they take animal prey mainly when the vegetation is covered by snow. They alsoswallow pebbles and grit to aid in crushing food in theircrop.[17] In their wintering grounds in China, they have been noted to feed to a large extent on the submerged leaves ofVallisneria spiralis.[28] Specimens wintering in India have been found to have mainly aquatic plants in their stomachs. They are however noted to pick upbeetles and bird's eggs in captivity.[29][30]
Siberian cranes return to the Arctic tundra around the end ofApril and beginning ofMay.[31] The nest is usually on the edge of lake inboggy ground and is usually surrounded by water. Most eggs are laid in the first week ofJune when the tundra is snow free. The usualclutch is two eggs, which areincubated by the female after the second egg is laid, with the male standing guard nearby. The eggs hatch in about 27 to 29 days. The young birdsfledge in about 80 days. Usually only a single chick survives due to aggression between young birds. The population increase per year is less than 10%, the lowest recruitment rate among cranes. Their success in breeding may further be hampered by disturbance fromreindeer and sometimes dogs that accompanyreindeer herders.[17] Captive breeding was achieved by the International Crane Foundation atBaraboo after numerous failed attempts. Males often killed their mates and captive breeding was achieved byartificial insemination and the hatching of eggs by other crane species such as thesandhill and usingfloodlights to simulate the longer daylengths of theArctic summer.[32]
A Siberian crane family at Poyang Lake,Jiangxi, China
This species breeds in twodisjunct regions in the arctic tundra ofRussia; the western population along theOb,Yakutia, and westernSiberia. It is a long distancemigrant and among the cranes, makes one of the longest migrations.[17] The eastern population winters on theYangtze River andLake Poyang in China, and the western population inFereydoon Kenar in Iran. The central population, which once wintered inKeoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, isextinct.
Map Signatories to Siberian Crane memorandum (MoU)
Theconservation status of the Siberian crane is very serious. In 2008, the decreasing world population was estimated to be around 3500–4000 individuals, nearly all of them belonging to the eastern breeding population.[1] Of the 15 crane species, this is the only regarded ascritically endangered, the highest threatened category by theIUCN[1] (thewhooping crane of North America has a smaller but rising population that is better protected, giving the species a status of endangered.[33]) The western population of the Siberian crane had dwindled to four in 2002 and subsequently it was thought to be extirpated, but a single individual, named "Omid", has wintered in Iran since 2006–2007.[1] In 2022, conservationists in Iran attempted to re-establish a western population by introducing a captive-bred female named Roya to accompany Omid. Roya was born and raised in Belgium as part of an international collaboration and was transferred to Iran to encourage breeding. Despite widespread attention and hope, the project was unsuccessful as Roya failed to adapt to the natural habitat and now lives in captivity.[34][35][36]The wintering site at Poyang in China holds an estimated 98% of the population and is threatened byhydrological changes caused by theThree Gorges Dam and other water development projects.[citation needed]
Historical records from India suggest a wider winter distribution in the past including records fromGujarat, nearNew Delhi and even as far east asBihar.[18][37] In the19th century, larger numbers of birds were noted to visit India.[38] They were sought after by hunters andspecimen collectors. In 1974, as many as 75 birds wintered in Bharatpur, but this population declined to a single pair in 1992 and the last bird was seen in 2002.[39] An individual that escaped from a private menagerie was shot in theOuter Hebrides in 1891.[40] The western population may even have wintered as far west as Egypt along the Nile.[41]
Satellitetelemetry was used to track the migration of a flock that wintered in Iran. They were noted to rest on the eastern end of theVolga Delta.[42] Satellite telemetry was also used to track the migration of the eastern population in the mid-1990s, leading to the discovery of new resting areas along the species' flyway in eastern Russia and China.[43] The Siberian crane is one of the species to which theAgreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies and is subject ofthe Memorandum of Understanding concerning Conservation Measures for the Siberian Crane concluded under theBonn Convention.
^Beaman, M., & Madge, S. (2010).The handbook of bird identification: for Europe and the western Palearctic. A&C Black.
^Klenova, A. V., Goncharova, M. V., Kashentseva, T. A., & Naidenko, S. V. (2020).Voice breaking and its relation to body mass and testosterone level in the Siberian Crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus). Journal of Ornithology, 161(3), 859–871.
^Bragina, EV & Irina R. Beme (2010). "Siberian crane duet as an individual signature of a pair: comparison of visual and statistical classification techniques".Acta Ethologica.13 (1):39–48.doi:10.1007/s10211-010-0073-6.S2CID36289511.
^Sharma, B.K.; Kulshreshtha, Seema; Sharma, Shailja (2013)."Historical, Sociocultural, and Mythological Aspects of Faunal Conservation in Rajasthan". In Sharma, B.K.; Kulshreshtha, Seema; Rahmani, Asad R. (eds.).Faunal Heritage of Rajasthan, India: General Background and Ecology of Vertebrates.Springer. p. 201.ISBN978-1-4614-0799-7. Retrieved27 August 2019.Siberian CraneLeucogeranus leucogeranus (Fig. 3.33) used to be the most charismatic and rare bird at Ghana or the Keoladeo National Park of Bharatpur. At one time, hundreds of "Sibes" used to winter in the Ghana Bird Sanctuary. Like white ghosts in the mist, they were lured by other north Indian wetlands from far and near. The "Sibes" used to visit Ghana from their breeding grounds in Siberia in search of food owing to the nonavailability of summer supplies due to extreme cold. No Siberian Crane was sighted in Bharatpur since 2003.
^Provencal, P. & Sørensen, U. G. (1998). "Medieval record of the Siberian White CraneGrus leucogeranus in Egypt".Ibis.140 (2):333–335.doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1998.tb04399.x.
Siberian Crane Flyway Coordination (SCFC) enhances communication among the large network of scientists, governmental agencies, biologists, private organizations, and citizens involved with Siberian crane conservation in Eurasia.
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