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Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China

Understanding the habitat use and spatial distribution of wildlife can help conservationists determine high-priority areas and enhance conservation efforts. We studied the wintering habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species, that is, the black-necked crane (Grus nigr...

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Autores principales: Kong, Dejun, Luo, Weixiong, Liu, Qiang, Li, Zhuoqing, Huan, Guoyue, Zhang, Jianjun, Yang, Xiaojun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6054782/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30042879
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5105
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author Kong, Dejun
Luo, Weixiong
Liu, Qiang
Li, Zhuoqing
Huan, Guoyue
Zhang, Jianjun
Yang, Xiaojun
author_facet Kong, Dejun
Luo, Weixiong
Liu, Qiang
Li, Zhuoqing
Huan, Guoyue
Zhang, Jianjun
Yang, Xiaojun
author_sort Kong, Dejun
collection PubMed
description Understanding the habitat use and spatial distribution of wildlife can help conservationists determine high-priority areas and enhance conservation efforts. We studied the wintering habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species, that is, the black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis, Przevalski, 1876) and common crane (Grus grus, Linnaeus, 1758), in Huize National Natural Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, southwestern China. Line transects indicated that anthropogenic farmland habitat was highly utilized and was positively selected by both crane species (>90% of flocks observed for both species). Black-necked cranes preferred marshland in spring (February and March) but avoided grassland during the entire wintering period, whereas common cranes avoided both marshland and grassland throughout the entire period. The two cranes species had communal nightly roosting sites and separate daily foraging sites. Black-necked cranes were distributed within two km (1.89 ± 0.08 km) of the roosting site, covering an area of 283.84 ha, with the core distribution area encompassing less than 100 ha. In contrast, common cranes were distributed far from the roosting site (4.38 ± 0.11 km), covering an area of 558.73 ha, with the core distribution area encompassing 224.81 ha. Thus, interspecies competition may have influenced the habitat preference and spatial distribution divergence of these two phylogenetically related species. This study should help guide habitat management as well as functional zoning development and adjustment in the future. Based on our results, we recommend restoration of additional wetlands, retention of large areas of farmland, and protection of areas that cranes use most frequently.
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spelling pubmed-60547822018-07-24 Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China Kong, Dejun Luo, Weixiong Liu, Qiang Li, Zhuoqing Huan, Guoyue Zhang, Jianjun Yang, Xiaojun PeerJ Conservation Biology Understanding the habitat use and spatial distribution of wildlife can help conservationists determine high-priority areas and enhance conservation efforts. We studied the wintering habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species, that is, the black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis, Przevalski, 1876) and common crane (Grus grus, Linnaeus, 1758), in Huize National Natural Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, southwestern China. Line transects indicated that anthropogenic farmland habitat was highly utilized and was positively selected by both crane species (>90% of flocks observed for both species). Black-necked cranes preferred marshland in spring (February and March) but avoided grassland during the entire wintering period, whereas common cranes avoided both marshland and grassland throughout the entire period. The two cranes species had communal nightly roosting sites and separate daily foraging sites. Black-necked cranes were distributed within two km (1.89 ± 0.08 km) of the roosting site, covering an area of 283.84 ha, with the core distribution area encompassing less than 100 ha. In contrast, common cranes were distributed far from the roosting site (4.38 ± 0.11 km), covering an area of 558.73 ha, with the core distribution area encompassing 224.81 ha. Thus, interspecies competition may have influenced the habitat preference and spatial distribution divergence of these two phylogenetically related species. This study should help guide habitat management as well as functional zoning development and adjustment in the future. Based on our results, we recommend restoration of additional wetlands, retention of large areas of farmland, and protection of areas that cranes use most frequently. PeerJ Inc. 2018-07-18 /pmc/articles/PMC6054782/ /pubmed/30042879 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5105 Text en © 2018 Kong et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Conservation Biology
Kong, Dejun
Luo, Weixiong
Liu, Qiang
Li, Zhuoqing
Huan, Guoyue
Zhang, Jianjun
Yang, Xiaojun
Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China
title Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China
title_full Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China
title_fullStr Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China
title_full_unstemmed Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China
title_short Habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (Genus: Grus) in Huize National Nature Reserve, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, China
title_sort habitat use, preference, and utilization distribution of two crane species (genus: grus) in huize national nature reserve, yunnan–guizhou plateau, china
topic Conservation Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6054782/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30042879
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5105
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