Analysis of Case Study: Putting All Pieces Together

Analysis of Case Study: Putting All Pieces Together

- Mrudhula Gampala (111345)

Cranes are from Gruidae family and are the tall terrestrial birds with height ranging from 80 cm- 180 cm. Having long necks, legs and sometimes beaks, they are considered for possessing a very beautiful, graceful and pleasant stature. There are about 15 species of these animals distributed among 110 countries excluding South America and Antarctica. Roughly there are about 5 resident species and 1 winter migrating species in Africa, 8 species in East Asia, and around 2 species in Australia, Europe and North America.

Habitats of Cranes: Most cranes are found in open wetlands, savannahs, grass lands, and few species have adapted to humanized landscapes.

Survival data: Fossils record predict that the cranes family had been on earth for more than 50 million years, however from last 150 years there has been decline in the number and as the paper says the cranes had to cope up with the loss of habitats that occur due many reasons. One of the main reasons is the degradation and over exploitation of the ecosystem.

Table 1: Classification of Cranes by their conservation status

Critically Endangered Endangered Lower risk/Near Threatened Vulnerable Least concern Crane

Siberian Crane Red-crowned Crane

Whooping Crane Black-Crowned

Crane

Blue Crane

Wattled Crane

Sarus Crane

White-naped

Hooded Crane

Black-necked Grey Crowned

Demoiselle

Sandhill

Brolga

Eurasian crane

*This table was created from the table given in the paper" putting pieces together"*

Threats faced by Cranes: Apart from the degradation and conversion of the ecosystems, the cranes' family is facing threats from:

Table: 2 Threats faced by Cranes' habitats around the world

Hunting Powerline Collisions Dam Construction Poisons

Over Exploitation Water Diversions Urband Expansion Invasive Plant Species

Genetic & Demographic problems associated with Small populations Political Instability Commercial trade in cranes Lack of effective environment law enforcement

Table 3 : List of Few Organizations that are part of conservation of cranes:

S.No Name of the Organization

1 International Crane Foundation (ICF)

2 IUCN/SSC Crane Specialist group

3 The Global Captive crane working group

4 US Whooping crane Recovery team

5 China Crane & water bird working group

6 And many working groups around the world

Discussion: The Paper "Putting pieces together- conserving cranes and their habitats around the world" discusses about the three cases from Amur River basin across Russia-China border, Cao hoi in Yunnan province of china, Zambezi basin in Mozambique. In all three cases, the author discusses how crane conservations and cranes can act as catalyst in rebuilding or restoring the ecosystem.

Amur River basin is home for variety species as it is the 8th longest river in the world with coniferous forests in the north and deciduous forests in the south. This place holds 6 species of cranes in which 4 species are listed threatened and endangered. With the plans of dam constructions and development in this area, there was decline in the number of Red crowned cranes and white napped cranes including the wetlands & the river. This triggered in taking conservation initiatives by the conservation organizations and by conservationists from Russia and china. The Russian NGO, Socio- Ecological Union ( SEU) developed a park