Shifting of the Migration Route of White-Naped Crane (Antigone vipio) Due to Wetland Loss in China

Abstract

In the last 15 years, the west population of white-naped crane (Antigone vipio) decreased dramatically despite the enhanced conservation actions in both breeding and wintering areas. Recent studies highlighted the importance of protecting the integrity of movement connectivity for migratory birds. Widespread and rapid landcover changes may exceed the adaptive capacity of migrants, leading to the collapse of migratory networks. In this study, using satellite tracking data, we modeled and characterized the migration routes of the white-naped crane at three spatial levels (core area, migratory corridor, and migratory path) based on the utilization distribution for two eras (1990s and 2010s) spanning 20 years. Our analysis demonstrated that the white-naped crane shifted its migratory route, which is supported by other lines of evidences. The widespread loss of wetlands, especially within the stopover sites, might have caused this behavioral adaptation. Moreover, our analysis indicated that the long-term sustainability of the new route is untested and likely to be questionable. Therefore, directing conservation effects to the new route might be insufficient for the long-term wellbeing of this threatened crane and large-scale wetland restorations in Bohai Bay, a critical stopover site in the East Asian-Australasian flyway, are of the utmost importance to the conservation of this species.

The effects of cities on quail (Coturnix coturnix) migration: a disturbing story of population connectivity, health, and ecography

“…Stored energy reserves and tailwinds influence route selection (Purcell and Brodin 2007 ), but the route chosen may influence a species’ population dynamics (Cohen et al 2017 ). As our findings suggest, natural barriers condition the routes (Feng et al 2021 ) and habitat loss acts as a barrier (Jia et al 2021 ; Tankersley 2004 ).…”

Breeding and migration performance metrics highlight challenges for White-naped Cranes

“…Since WNC breeding, wintering, and staging grounds stretch across a huge area and many countries, this can only be achieved through collaborative research efforts. Many of the WNCs key sites are unprotected 53 – 55 including breeding sites, which our study indicates have decreased in suitability and may be key in explaining the species’ population decline. Though we did not link habitat conditions directly to survival in this study, conditions were clearly associated with breeding performance and therefore likely long-term productivity.…”

“…The gradually increasing expansion of the anthropogenic landscape in their flyways is thought to negatively affect many waterbird species by limiting suitable habitat availability 6 and increasing disturbance at their stopovers 69 with potential consequences for their survival 70 . Also WNCs are considered to be suffering from habitat degradation along their migratory route 55 and at their breeding grounds (this study), we could not show this to have an effect on survival using the seven years of annual survival data available to date; there was no clear pattern in annual survival rates, and it did not relate to any of the environmental variables that we tested. However, comparing the stable adult annual survival rate (84% in this study) of WNCs over the seven year study period with related species, it appeared lower than in Whooping Crane ( Grus americana ) (94.4%) 71 and Sandhill Crane ( Grus canadensis ) (94.2%) 72 in North America, of which populations are both increasing 71 – 73 .…”

“…For testing the migration duration and number of stops, we used the mean of March and April environmental data for the Luan River catchment (stopover) for northbound and mean of October and November data for southbound migration. This Luan River catchment (hereafter Luan) was previously recognised as the major stopover in a number of studies 53 – 55 . To test for potential anthropogenic impacts on migration, we included annual human population density estimates as an additional covariate for testing departure date, migration duration, and number of stopovers.…”