North American Crane Working Group

 

Date of this Version

1992

Document Type

Article

Citation

Littlefield, C.D., and S.M. Lindstedt. Surival of juvenile greater sandhill cranes at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon. In: Wood D. A., ed. 1992. Proceedings 1988 North American Crane Workshop, Feb. 22–24, 1988. Lake Wales, Florida (Tallahassee, FL: State of Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission Nongame Wildlife Program Technical Report #12, 1992), pp. 21-32.

Comments

Used by permission of the North American Crane Working Group.

Abstract

Greater sandhill crane (Grus canadensis tabida) recruitment rates in southeast Oregon have generally been low since the mid-1970s. To identify causative factors for low chick survival, transmitters were placed on 21 flightless young in 1983 and 18 in 1984. Of the chicks monitored in 1983, contact was lost with 4, 13 were lost to predators, 1 died of parasitic pneumonia) drowned and 2 fledged. In 1984, 8 chicks were monitored, 4 were lost to predators, 1 drowned, and 3 died from unknown causes. Of 10 transmitters which malfunctioned, 8 were on chicks known to have died. Predation was determined to be the major mortality factor on Malheur NWR, with coyotes (Canis latrans) being the most serious predator.

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