Siberian Crane (Rare Birds 02, ink) by VeronRishka on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This October I'm trying to draw an endangered bird species each day, focusing on representing one or more of the factors contributing to their endangerment. A little grim, but a good way to learn more about birds!TODAY'S BIRD: Siberian Cranes (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) are rated 'Critically Endangered' on the global IUCN redlist. There are many factors contributing to their precarious position, but one of them is the extremely difficult migration they undertake each year. The part of the population that breeds in the arctic tundra of eastern Russian migrates to China for the winter, and the trip is especially difficult because Siberian cranes are not well-adapted to foraging in the habitat they encounter between their breeding and wintering areas; as a result, they experience pretty extreme food shortages on the trip. Degtyarev & Slepstov (2013) found that Siberian cranes migrating through taiga bogs did not get enough sustenance from foraging in these bogs, unless Eurasian Moose (Alces alces) were active in the area. Moose tear up the ground and expose the types of food that Siberian Cranes can eat, allowing them to get enough food in during their stop-overs. Unfortunately, Eurasian Moose are dwindling because of over-hunting. I thought this was an interesting example of a trophic link between species, so I focused on that in this drawing... now, obviously, if the moose had been the victim of hunting, its skull wouldn't be lying around, but... what can I say, it's symbolic. Fewer moose == more difficult migration for Siberian Cranes. Degtyarev & Slepstov suggest that worst-case scenario conservation efforts could involve luring migrating cranes to areas known to have moose activity and/or creating favorable foraging conditions artificially by mimicking moose activity in bogs, tearing up plants and soil in a similar manner to expose food.

Degtyarev, V. G., & Sleptsov, S. M. (2013). Ecology of the eastern population of the Siberian Crane Leucogeranus leucogeranus in the taiga section of its flyway: habitats, foraging, trophic links with Elk Alces alces, and threats. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 5(14), 4871-4879.Materials: Micron pigma pens (005, 05) and sharpie on smooth Bristol paper, 8x5 inches.