Cranes of the World, by Paul Johnsgard

Cranes of the World: Whooping Crane (Grus americana)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:46:32 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Whooper; Big white crane; Grue de Amerique, Grue blanche Americaine (French); Schreikranich, Trompeterkranich (German); Amerikanishiy krikpivy zhuravl (Russian); Grulla griteria, Grulla blanca (Spanish).

Range:
Breeds in Wood Buffalo National Park, Northwest Territories. Migratory, wintering at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, coastal Texas. Formerly much more widespread, breeding south to North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, and reported from as far west as Utah, east to Cape May New Jersey, and south to coastal Louisiana. Birds hatched from eggs recently transported to Grays Lake, southeastern Idaho, have been reared by greater sandhill cranes and now winter with them in the Rio Grande area of south-central New Mexico.

Cranes of the World: White-naped Crane (Grus vipio)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:42:29 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Japanese white-necked crane; Ts-ang-kua (Chinese); Grue á cour blanc (French); Weissnacken-Kranich (German); Mana-zuru (Japanese); Dachkai zhuravl (Russian); Grulla de cuelle blanco (Spanish).

Range:
Breeds on the Transbaikalian steppes probably from the Onon and Argun rivers eastward through northwestern and central Manchuria to the southern Ussuri Valley, the basin of Lake Khanka, and in southwestern Ussuriland. Known recent breeding areas (Yamashina, 1978) include the marshlands around the central part of the Primorskiy Kraj (Maritime Territory), the middle drainage of the Amur River (from the upper Zeya to the Bureya and the Archara), and in northwestern Manchuria (Jaranton). Also breeds in eastern Mongolia to headwaters of the Kerulin River (Bold, 1981). Migratory, wintering in Korea, in southern Japan (Arasaki, Kyushu), and (formerly) on the lower Hwang and Yangtze rivers of eastern China, with vagrants sometimes reaching Fukien and Taiwan.

Cranes of the World: Wattled Crane (Bugeranus carunculatus)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:38:56 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Great African wattled crane; Grue caroncule (French); Glockenkranich, Klunkerkranich (German); Hooka Zuru (Japanese); Asbrikanskiy Sorodavachaty (Russian); Mothlathomo (Sotho, Sesuto); Grulla zarzo (Spanish); Makalanga (Zambian).

Range:
Resident in eastern and southern Africa, from Ethiopia in the north southward discontinuously through southern Tanzania (apparently absent from Kenya and northern Tanzania) and Mozambique to the Transvaal and Natal, and westward to southern Angola and Namibia (South West Africa), in the latter area breeding locally only. Now extirpated from Cape Province and Orange Free State, and probably declining elsewhere (West, 1976)

Cranes of the World: 3. Vocalizations

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:36:51 PST

Of all avian sounds, few have the power to catch the human imagination and thrill the senses as much as does the bugling of a flock of distant cranes. Leopold (1949) referred to the progressively louder sounds of an approaching flock of sandhill cranes as “a tinkling of little bells,” the “baying of some sweet-throated hound,” and finally as “a pandemonium of trumpets, rattles, croaks, and cries.” The Greeks called it “iangling,” and most recent writers have compared the calls of typical Grus cranes to trumpets or bugles. In doing so, they have inadvertently drawn attention to the similarity of the calls to the sounds generated by musical instruments, and it is important to investigate the similarities and dissimilarities between the vocalizations of cranes and the sounds generated from man-made musical instruments.

Cranes of the World: Siberian Crane (Bugeranus leucogeranus)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:31:24 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Siberian white crane, Asiatic White Crane; Grue nonne, Grue blanche d'Asie (French); Nonnenkranich, Schnee-Kranich, Weisse indische Kranich (German); Sod egura-zuru (Japanese); Sterch, Belyi zhuravl (Russian); Grulla siberiana, Grulla blanco (Spanish).

Range:
Known breeding areas are currently only two. The first is from about the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh rivers north to the region of Berezovo, and the second is from the basin of the Indigirka (from its mouth south to the Moma River) west to the Khroma River and the lower Yana. Other possible breeding areas may extend the second range east to the lower Kolyma and west to the region east of the lower Lena River. Possibly breeding also occurs or once occurred in the valley of the lower Vilyuy and on the Vitim Plateau and, in the west, the swamps north of the Baraba steppe. Breeding was formerly much more extensive, and included the Kirghiz and Siberian steppes, and per haps from southeastern Transbaikalia to northern Morlgolia and northern Manchuria (Vaurie, 1965). Wintering occurs (rarely) in the south Caspian (Iran), and in the Keoladeo Ghana Sanctuar y, near Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India. The east Siberian breeding population winters in the Yangtze Basin of eastern China, in the swampy parts of northern Jiangxi Province (Tso-hsin Cheng, in lit.).

Cranes of the World: Sarus Crane (Grus antigone)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:27:02 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Sharpe's crane; Khur-sang, Korchan (Assam); Grue antigone tropicale, Grue á collier (French); Sarus-kranich, Halsbandkranich (German); Saras, Sirhans (Hindi); O-O zuru (Japanese); Belyi zhuravl (Russian); Grulla blanco cue110 (Spanish).

Range:
Resident in northern India, east to Burma, on the Malay Peninsula, and in Indo-Chinese countries, and in northern Australia. Probably extirpated from the Philippine Islands, and perhaps also from Burma, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Cranes of the World: Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:24:59 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Canadian crane, Little brown crane; Grue du Canada (French); Kanadischer Kranich (German); Kanada-zuru (Japanese): Kanadaski zhuravl (Russian); Grulla del Canada (Spanish).

Range:
Breeds in extreme northeastern Siberia and in North America from Alaska to Baffin Island, south to northeastern Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Additional nonmigratory populations exist in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Cuba, and the Isle of Pines. The migratory races winter from California and Baja California eastward to New Mexico, Texas, and Florida. The breeding range was formerly much more extensive in the United States, extending south to Nebraska, Indiana, and Ohio.

Cranes of the World: References

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:22:34 PST

The following list of more than 400 references is by no means a complete bibliography of cranes, but does include a few titles that for various reasons were not specifically cited in the text. Walkinshaw's (1973) monograph contains a large number of citations not found in the present list, and he additionally has recently (1981c) updated and supplemented his earlier bibliography. All told, his two citation lists include nearly 2,500 citations. Nearly 40 percent of the 1973 list deals with the whooping crane, 20 percent with the sandhill crane, 15 percent with the Eurasian crane, and 8 percent with the Australian crane. Each of the remaining nine species individually comprise no more than 4 percent of the citations, and the Siberian, Japanese, white-naped, demoiselle, and hooded cranes each make up no more than 1 percent. It is thus apparent that at least the English literature on cranes is strongly biased toward the whooping and sandhill cranes, and that many fundamental studies remain to be undertaken on the majority of the cranes of the world. It is especially unfortunate that the literature on four of the world's endangered or vulnerable species (Siberian, Japanese, whitenaped, and hooded) is still so scanty, considering the importance of a proper understanding of their biology and management if they are to be preserved from extinction.

Cranes of the World: ORIGINS OF SCIENTIFIC AND VERNACULAR NAMES OF CRANES

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:20:51 PST

Origins of scientific and vernacular names of cranes

Cranes of the World: KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF CRANES OF THE WORLD

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:18:29 PST

Key to the Families of Gruoidea
Key to Cranes of the World

Cranes of the World: Japanese Crane (Grus japonensis)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:16:41 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Manchurian crane, Redcrowned crane; Tan-ting ho, Hsien-ho (Chinese); Grue de Mandchourie (French); Mandschuren- Kranich (German): Tancho, Tozuro (Japanese); Manshuskiy zhuravl, Ussuriskii zhuravl (Russian); Grulla blanc (Spanish).

Range:
Breeds in northeastern Mongolia on the border of Manchuria (Hahlin Basin) and eastwards through northern and central Manchuria to Lake Khanka and along the Ussuri to its mouth, and in the middle Amur Valley west to the Bureya or Gorin River. An essentially resident population also occurs in northeastern Hokkaido, Japan. The continental population is migratory, wintering in Korea and in eastern China (north of the Gulf of Chihli, and occasionally also the lower Yangtze and sometimes on Taiwan), with vagrants reaching Sakhalin (Vaurie, 1965; Yamashina, 1978). There is apparently also a small resident population near Pyongyang, North Korea (King, 1979).

Cranes of the World: 2. Individualistic and Social Behavior

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:15:19 PST

Like all higher organisms, cranes perform a variety of behavior patterns throughout their lives that have evolved to fulfill diverse functions. Much of their time is spent in self-directed activities necessary to maintain life and health. These individualistic or "egocentric" activities include such fundamental behaviors as breathing, eating, defecation, drinking, and sleeping or resting. Other activities, while not vital to life, are usually performed during "leisure time"; these include preening, shaking, stretching, oiling, and other actions that fall within a general umbrella of "comfort" activities. Still other activities, such as foraging and the seeking of shelter, result in aggregations of cranes drawn to the same environmental conditions, and such "quasi-social" behaviors may lead to actual social interactions. These truly social behaviors require the presence of another individual for their performance, with one individual serving as a "sender" of specific social signal's (aggression, appeasement, sexual attractions, solicitation of food, etc.), while one or more other individuals serve as "receivers" of such signals. Frequently the "receiver" also becomes a "sender," and the simultaneous or sequential exchange of signals between individuals often results in complex social interactions that provide the basis for integration of pairs, families, and flocks. The following summary of egocentric and social behavior patterns in cranes is primarily based on Voss's (1976) inventory of behavior patterns in the greater sandhill crane; with little variation most or all of these patterns can be regarded as characteristic of cranes in general.

Cranes of the World: Index

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:12:58 PST

This index is limited to the English vernacular and Latin names of crane species and subspecies, including fossil terms. Complete indexing is limited to entries for the English vernacular names of species as used in this book. The principal account of each species or genus is indicated by italics.

Cranes of the World: Hooded Crane (Grus monachus)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:11:42 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
None in general English use; Huan-has (Chinese); Grue-moine (French); Monchskranich (German); Nabe-zuru (Japanese); Chernyi zhuravl (Russian); Grulla capachina (Spanish).

Range:
Breeding range not well known, but currently known to breed only in a few isolated areas of the USSR, including the Ussuri River and the lower Amur, in the basin of the middle reaches of the Vilyuy, and in the Olekma-Chara uplands. Breeding probably also occurs in the upper Nizhnaya Tunguska River and its tributary the Nyepa, along the Chona River, in the lower Amur along the In and Mukhen rivers, in the basin of the Evur River and Lake Evonon, in the upper part of the Gorin River, and in central Sakhalin. Possibly also breeds in northwestern Manchuria (Hai-la-erh) and the middle Sungari. Migratory, wintering in Korea (irregularly) and Japan (Kyushu and Honshu, Kagoshima and Yamaguchi prefectures, and formerly Hokkaido). Also winters in unknown numbers in the lower Yangtze Valley of China (Cheng, 1981), and has been seen rarely in India.

Cranes of the World: Eurasian Crane (Grus grus)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:09:27 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Common crane, Crane; Huiho (Chinese); Grue cendree (French); Kranich (German); Kuro-zuru, Kurotsuru (Japanese); Seryi zhuravl (Russian); Grulla comun (Spanish).

Range:
Breeds in northern Eurasia from Scandinavia east to at least the Indigirka River, and probably to the Kolyma, and south to northern Germany, the Ukraine, the Kirghiz Steppes, Russian and Chinese Turkestan, Mongolia, and northern Manchuria, with isolated colonies in the Dobrogea, Turkey, and Transcaucasia. Migratory, wintering in the Mediterranean region to northwestern and northeastern Africa, the Persian Gulf region, peninsular India, and from southern China to northern Indo- China, Burma, and Assam (Vaurie, 1965).

Cranes of the World: Epilogue

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:03:12 PST

And as wee see strange Crane are won’t to doe
First stalke a while ere they their wings can finde,
Then soare from ground not past a yard or two,
Till in their wings they gathered have the winde;
At last they mount the very cloudes unto,
Trianglewise according to their kind.
-Topsell, 1972

Cranes of the World: 7. Endangered Species and Conservation

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:00:57 PST

Few families of birds, other than some associated with small island archipelagos, have such a large proportion of their species in danger of extinction as does the crane family. Of the 14 extant species of cranes, King (1979) regards two full species (whooping crane and Siberian crane) as endangered, three more (Japanese, hooded, and white-naped) as vulnerable, and the black-necked crane as of indeterminate status. Additionally, one race (the Mississippi) of the sandhill crane is classified as endangered, and the Cuban race is regarded as rare and local. Thus, more than a third of the world's crane species are currently considered vulnerable or endangered.

Cranes of the World: 4. Ecology and Population Dynamics

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:58:43 PST

Like other animals, cranes exist as natural populations that are dependent upon particular environmental conditions and that vary in population density between the absolute minimum numbers that have permitted survival to relatively dense populations that may approach or even temporarily exceed the carrying capacity of the habitat. Each species may also have an upper species-typical limit on population density, or "saturation point," which is independent of the carrying capacity of the habitat but which may be determined by such social adaptations as territorial requirements or individual distance characteristics. Within crane populations, individual birds or families remain within home ranges or geographic areas in which their movements are limited and within which they may spend much of their lives. Part of the occupied area may be defended from intrusion by conspecifics for varying periods; these areas of local social dominance range from individual distances to territories and probably play important roles in determining space requirements for crane populations. During periods of the year when breeding or wintering territories are not held, as during migration, dominance hierarchies serve to integrate the activities of the family and flock, and may likewise play important roles in population behavior and ecology. Interspecific differences in morphology and innate behavior patterns may further dictate specific foraging niches for each species, and these too may be of importance in regulating potential population sizes in cranes and in determining competition levels with other species.

Cranes of the World: Demoiselle Crane (Anthropoides virgo)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:56:49 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
None in General English use; Shuai-yu-hao (Chinese); Grue demoisella, Demoiselle de Numidae (French); Jungfernkranich (German); Karkarra (Hindi); Aneha-zuru (Japanese); Krasavka zhuravl (Russian); Grulla damisela, Grulla moruria (Spanish).

Range:
Bred at least formerly in northwestern Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, possibly northern Morocco); currently breeds in Europe from the southern IJkraine and the Crimea through southeastern Russia (north to the region of Volgograd and south to the steppes to the east of the lower Volga), eastward through the steppes of the Kirghiz, western Siberia, southern Minusinsk, and the Altai, Lake Baikal, and of southern Transbaikalia, to the steppes of northwestern Manchuria. Breeds locally southward to the Sea of Aral, western Chinese Turkestan, and Mongolia, with isolated colonies in Armenia, northwestern Tadzhikistan, and Inner Mongolia. Also recently found breeding in eastern Turkey. Migratory, wintering in northwestern Africa (from Lake Chad to the White and Blue Niles), India, and Pakistan, and more rarely in Assam and Burma. Perhaps winters locally or rarely elsewhere (Iraq, Iran, Seistan, Baluchistan), with vagrants sometimes reaching Japan, Ussuriland, and western Europe.

Cranes of the World: Crowned Crane (Balearica pauonina)

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:54:37 PST

Other Vernacular Names:
Blue-necked or gray crowned crane (regulorum and gibbericeps), Black-necked or dark crowned crane (pavonina and ceciliae); Ma-hem (Afrikaan); Grue couronnee, Grue ronnee du Cap (French); Konigskranich (German); Minima kanmuri-zuru (Japanese); Makoka zhuravl (Russian); Grulla corona (Spanish); I-hem (Xhosa); U-Nohemu (Zulu).

Range:
Resident in open country over most of Africa south of the Sahara, excepting the Congo Basin and the driest portions of southwestern Africa.