Habitat Suitability of Eastern Sarus Crane (Antigone Antigone sharpii) in Ayeyarwady Delta, the Union of Myanmar

Abstract

The eastern sarus crane (Antigone antigone sharpii; ESC) is a species related to wetland ecosystems in Southeast Asia. The habitat suitability of the eastern sarus crane in Ayeyarwady Delta was surveyed between March 2018 and February 2019. Eastern sarus cranes were found at 73 locations and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) was used to classify the habitat suitability among different seasons. MaxEnt showed the largest total area of highly suitable habitat was in the winter season (2450 km2, AUC = 0.968), while the least amount of available suitable habitat was evident during the rainy season (1028.7 km2, AUC = 0.979). A difference in the assessment of home range areas using the Minimum Convex Polygon (95% MPC) and the Kernel Density Estimate (95% KDE) was found. The total area in the winter season was highest at 95% KDE (13,839.5 km2) and lowest in the rainy season (1238.1 km2), while 95% MCP was highest in the rainy season (7892.9 km2) and lowest in the summer season (7014.6 km2). Analysis of the environmental parameters indicated that low temperature in the summer season and high precipitation in the rainy season and winter season are important for ESC habitat suitability. These climatic parameters were important for ESC in all seasons (AUC > 0.9). Important parameters influencing ESC habitat suitability were elevation, slope, distance to road in the summer season, elevation, distance to road and village and slope in the rainy season, and elevation and slope in the winter season. Annual precipitation was the main parameter influencing ESC habitat suitability in both summer and winter, while in the rainy season it was mean diurnal range (>90%).

Avian Ecology and Diversity, Population Monitoring and Conservation: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Two papers in our first volume use such modelling approaches. In the first of these papers, Latt et al [2] use SDMs to identify suitable habitats and the key environmental factors that influenced the distribution of suitable habitat areas for the Eastern Sarus Crane (Antigone antigone sharpie) populations in the ~82,000 km 2 Ayeyarwady Delta Region in Myanmar, an area widely suspected to be one of the most important areas for the sarus crane in the country. Their models revealed that the lower part of the Ayeyarwady Delta is currently suitable for supporting cranes throughout all seasons and that the species is often found in close proximity to human settlements.…”