The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124(4):704-712, 2012 
MIGRATION ROUTES AND NEW BREEDING AREAS OF 
BLACK-NECKED CRANES 
QIANG LIU, 1 - 5 FENG-SHAN LI, 2 PAUL BUZZARD,' FA-WEN QIAN, 4 FAN ZHANG. 3 
JIAN-LIN ZHAO. 6 JUN-XING YANG, 17 AND XIAO-JUN YANG 1 - 7 
ABSTRACT.—We equipped five Black-necked Cranes (Grus nigricollis) with satellite transmitters between February 
and November 2009 to investigate their migration routes between breeding areas and wintering area at Napahai Marsh 
(3,260 m asl). China. We identified the Shaluli Mountain region (southwest Sichuan), including Daocheng, Litang, Baiyu. 
and Xinlong counties as a new breeding area with a mean elevation of 4.330 m asl. Four of five tracked cranes spent the 
summer in Daocheng County. The fifth crane was there briefly and then moved north to Baiyu and Xinlong counties. The 
distance between Napahai Marsh and Daocheng County ( — 180 km) is one of the shortest migration routes among crane 
species, but covered an elevation increase of — 1,200 m. The migration route of the fifth crane was -400 km in length and 
occurred over 2 or 5 days in spring 2009 and 2010, respectively, and 19 days in fall 2009 with five stopovers. Received I 
November 2011. Accepted 15 June 20/2. 
The Black-necked Crane (Grits nigricollis) 
lives al altitudes of ~ 1,900-4,500 m asl (Li and 
Li 2005) and is the only species of cranes endemic 
to the Qinghai-Tihet and Yunnan-Guizhou pla¬ 
teaus. This species with -8,000 individuals 
remaining in the wild is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ 
on the 1UCN Red List (IUCN 201 I). The summer 
breeding range of Black-necked Cranes includes 
much of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China with a 
small number in neighboring India. Black-necked 
Cranes winter mainly in three subpopulations: (1) 
eastern population (EP; northeastern Yunnan and 
northwestern Guizhou provinces), (2) central 
population (CP; in northwestern Yunnan), and 
(3) western population (WP; southern Tibet and 
Bhutan, Li 2005). 
The migration routes of Black-necked Cranes 
have remained unknown until recently, because of 
their remote distribution in high elevation areas. 
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and 
Evolution. Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Acad- 
«lf ScienCes ’ 32 Jiaoch angdong Rd., Kunming. Yunnan 
650223, China. 
International Crane Foundation. E-11376 Shady lane 
Road, Baraboo, W1 53913. USA. 
China Exploration and Research Society, B2707-08 
SouthMark. 11 Yip Fling Street. Wong Chuk Hang, Hong 
Kong, China. 6 
4 Institute of Forest Ecology. Environment and Protec¬ 
tion, Chinese Academy of Forestry. Beijing. 100091, China 
5 National Plateau Wetlands Research Center, Southwest 
Forestry University, Yunnan, 650224. China. 
"^ n ® r j; La Furcs,r y Bureau, Shangri-la. Yunnan, 
674400, China. 
7 Corresponding author; e-mail: yungxj@mail.kiz.ac cn or 
yangjx@mail.kiz.ac.cn 
The first efforts to document Black-necked Crane 
migration included banding cranes and. more 
recently, satellite tracking (Wu el al. 1994. 
Archibald 2005, Qian et al. 2009; Drolma 
Tsamehue. pers. obs.; Cl. W. Archibald, pers. 
comm.; Wangmo Rinchen. pers. comm.). These 
cl torts identified three migration fly ways: (1) 
Irom eastern subpopulation wintering areas to a 
breeding area at Ruoergai Marsh in northern 
Sichuan, (2) from the western subpopulalion 
wintering areas to a breeding area in central anti 
northern Tibet, and (3) from the central subpop¬ 
ulalion wintering area to a breeding area in south 
Qinghai (Fig. 1). 
I he central subpopulation is the least under¬ 
stood. but also the most endangered with —300 
individuals. This subpopulation formerly wintered 
at seven wetlands and lakes in northwest Yunnan 
(Li 2005). Currently, however, cranes are com¬ 
monly observed at only two sites: Napahai Marsh 
and Bitahai Marsh, with the former having the 
largest number (Wei and Wu 1994, Hun 1995. Li 
1996, Yang 2005). However, numbers at these 
two locations are declining: the wintering popu¬ 
lation at Napahai Marsh declined from -700-800 
birds before the 1960s to -300 in 1978-1979 and 
to 60-70 in 1981. due largely to drainage of 
wetlands and hunting (Li "and Bishop 1999). 
Recent efforts have allowed the population to 
recover to —300 individuals, but the percentage of 
juveniles in the subpopulation has been decreas¬ 
ing, based on monitoring conducted from 2004 to 
2010 (Liu 2007. Wang 2008, Liu 2010). The 
percentage ol juveniles was only 8.4% in winter 
2009, lower than estimates in a 2002 International 
Crane Foundation report of 18.9% for the central 
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