Date: April 18, 2018
Source: American Ornithological Society Publications
Office
Summary:
Every year, endangered whooping
cranes travel along a 4,000-kilometer corridor linking their Canadian nesting
grounds and their winter home in Texas. Habitat in their path through the
northern Great Plains is being lost at an alarming rate, but identifying key
spots for protection is a challenge. Now, researchers behind a new study have
created a model of whooping crane habitat use with the potential to greatly
improve the targeting of conservation efforts during their migration.
Researcher Neal Niemuth and his
colleagues used a database of Whooping Crane sightings in the region since 1990
to examine cranes' habitat use in North and South Dakota. Analyzing the spatial
patterns of the sightings, they found that Whooping Cranes prefer habitat that
includes a mix of croplands and wetlands and are more attracted by a single
large wetland basin than multiple smaller basins. Their results also show the
effects of different conservation strategies across the region. East of the
Missouri River, where efforts have been specifically targeted toward waterfowl
conservation, lands under conservation management were more likely than other
locations to be used by Whooping Cranes. West of the river, however, this was
not the case.
No comments:
Post a Comment