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Xinjiang's first discovery of wintering black-necked cranes

Photo taken on January 6, 2022 shows a group of black-necked cranes overwintering in Tula Ranch, Qiemo County, Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang. (Photo by Shang Peng)

At the foot of the snow-capped mountain, a group of black-necked cranes are singing and dancing gracefully. Recently, the staff of the Xinjiang Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve Authority found a group of black-necked cranes in the Tula Ranch of Qiemo County, Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture on their way to patrol. Ma Ming, a researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that Xinjiang, for the first time, captured the wintering black-necked crane population in the severe cold season, which is of great significance for understanding the wintering migration route of black-necked cranes and for the better implementation of research on and protection of black-necked cranes.

The black-necked crane is the only kind of plateau crane in the world and is under first-class state protection in China. The Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve is one of the northernmost habitats of black-necked cranes in China, where more than 100 black-necked cranes inhabit.

According to Shang Peng, a staff member of the reserve, from January 4 to 7 in 2022, when he and his colleague Xu Junquan were patrolling in the Tula Ranch, through the telescope observation, a total of 44 black-necked cranes were observed and recorded, including six or seven smaller sub-adult cranes.

Tula Ranch is more than a hundred kilometers away from the Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve, and has an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters according to Shang Peng. Although the ranch is not as high as the habitat of black-necked cranes in the reserve, it is surrounded by mountains and has non-frozen waters. "We found that Tula Ranch is warmer than the reserve. With the surrounding water, various dry aquatic plants, and little human disturbance with only less than 10 herdsmen living nearby, it should be a suitable place for black-necked cranes to overwinter."

The staff found that due to the relatively warm climate and abundant water plants in the pasture, in addition to black-necked cranes, flocks of mallards, ruddy shelducks, and red-billed chough also inhabit here.

Tudi Reheman, a herdsman who has lived in the Tula Ranch for 15 years, said: "There are just a few of them at first, but their number has gradually reached dozens in recent years." These black-necked cranes sometimes forage in wetlands, and sometimes go near the sheep pen to look for food. The herdsmen will deliberately scatter some corn kernels around the sheep pen for the black-necked cranes to eat.

Ma Ming analyzed that the reason why the wintering black-necked crane population appears in the Tula Ranch may be related to the better ecological environment of the pasture and its abundant food resources in winter; for another, a might-be warmer climate in the Kunlun Mountains due to global warming, which gradually meets the need of the black-necked cranes to overwinter.

"In the past, gray cranes would not overwinter in Xinjiang, but in recent years, with the advancement of environmental protection work in various places, more and more gray cranes stay in Xinjiang to spend the winter. Wetlands and rivers in places including Aksu, Hotan, and Kashgar have become the home of gray cranes in winter." Ma Ming said.