Ornithologists have summed up the disappointing results of the second stage of the project to preserve the rare demoiselle crane. Another expedition to count birds listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation confirms the fears of specialists: the species is disappearing in the European part of Russia.
The demoiselle crane conservation project has been implemented for the second year by specialists from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS), Valentin Ilyashenko, Elena Ilyashenko and Kristina Kondrakova. In June of this year, the scientists examined suboptimal habitats of the cranes in the Volgograd and Saratov Trans-Volga regions. The route, about 3 thousand km long, was planned based on the results of a preliminary survey conducted in April. During the survey, ornithologists encountered fewer pairs of cranes than in the spring, although they expected the opposite result: usually in the summer heat, pairs with chicks stand in the shade of poles or come to drink.
Photo: E.I. Ilyashenko
"During the expedition, the weather was not hot, it was constantly raining, and the couples did not need to come to drink at the livestock points or hide in the shade of the poles. Basically, we found only those couples that were seen incubating in the spring, although we had to look for them specifically. This is very different from the demoiselle count in previous years, when cranes were noted along the entire route," said expedition participant, candidate of biological sciences Elena Ilyashenko.
In Kalmykia, in the optimal habitats of the Priergeninskaya sloping plain, where about 40 pairs were counted last spring and 21 chicks were tagged in the summer, there are also fewer demoiselles. This spring, only 5 pairs were counted, and in general, only 8 chicks aged 35-45 days were ringed in Kalmykia. "Another five pairs were leading downy chicks from repeated clutches, which is probably due to the cold weather in May during the incubation period," said expedition member, candidate of biological studies Valentin Ilyashenko.