Bai He Returns to Yakutia, Russia

Earlier this week we received news that Bai He had arrived in Yakutia, Russia! The new location placed the young Siberian Crane to the northeast of Yakutsk, the capital of Yakutia, approximately 1,400 miles northeast of his last known location at Momoge National Nature Reserve in northeastern China.

Just yesterday we received a new coordinate that places him approximately 400 miles to the north (less than 100 miles from the East Siberian Sea - that is far north!). His current location is near where he was captured and banded in northern Yakutia (where his parents nested) in August 2008. Click on the image below to view a larger version on the map.

We have followed Bai He for nine months as he has journeyed nearly 6,000 miles between his summering and wintering areas. We hope to continue receiving signals from his satellite transmitter over the next few months, so we can follow his movements during his first summer away from his parents. We thank you for joining us on this exciting journey!

Spring Migration Update: Jilin Province

Our last update on Bai He, the banded Siberian Crane that we are tracking north this spring, placed the young crane in Liaoning Province in northeastern China. Just yesterday we were excited to receive a location coordinate from Jilin Province, over 200 miles to the north (click here to view the migration map)! The location is within the Momoge National Nature Reserve, another important "rest stop" for Siberian Cranes along their East Asia flyway. Last spring, over 2,000 Siberian Cranes were observed at the reserve, and Bai He stopped in this area for several days last fall as he migrated south. Next stop - Russia!

Siberian Cranes at Momoge National Nature Reserve
in spring 2008. Photos by Ren Qing.

Russian Nature Reserves Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary

Last fall, Masha Vladimirtseva, Three White Cranes educator and researcher, sent us two updates from northeastern Russia as the Siberian Cranes migrated through this area (see our posting on Crane Days in Southern Yakutia and earlier postings from October 2008). A few weeks ago Masha passed on the news that two of the reserves that protect wetlands along the Siberian Crane flyway in southern Yakutia, Chabda and Kuoluma-Chappanda Republic Resource Reserves, are celebrating their ten year anniversaries in early May 2009.

As Bai He, our banded Siberian Crane, continues his northern migration, he may be migrating through Chabda and Kuoluma-Chappanda Reserves with other Siberian Cranes. Our last location from Bai He was received on April 8, 2009 in northeastern China. We received two poor quality signals from his transmitter last week, but we are optimistic that we will receive further location coordinates as he continues to move north.

To learn more about the Chabda and Kuoluma Chappanda Reserves, read Masha and her colleague's story on the UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetland Project website.

Maya River, Chabda Republic Resource Reserve

Huanzidong Reservoir, Liaoning Province

Earlier this week we received some exciting news - a Chinese photographer saw Bai He on March 27th at Huanzidong Reservior in Liaoning Province, China! A week earlier (March 20) we received a location coordinate placing Bai Hai near the reservoir, so it was great news to receive confirmation of the young crane's location. Our most recent location, received April 2, shows that Bai He has remained in this area, which is an important rest stop for Siberian Cranes during their long migrations. Last fall, Bai He also stopped for several days near the reservoir (see our postings from November 2008 for more information on Huanzidong Reservoir and Bai He's fall migration).


In the above image, Bai He (left) is landing near the edge of a wetland with a second Siberian Crane. This is the first known picture of Bai He since he was banded in Yakutia, Russia in August 2008. In the below image, you can see the antenna for Bai He's transmitter on his left leg (the transmitter is attached to a plastic band with the number 00 engraved on the side) and a small metal band on his right leg.


We thank Zhu Ying for permission to post his beautiful image and Wang Ximin for sharing this news.

Siberian Crane Spring Migration Update

This week we received new location data from the Siberian Crane, Bai He, that we are tracking in eastern China. We last received data from Bai He's transmitter on March 5 from the wintering grounds in the Poyang Lake Basin. On March 17 we received new data placing Bai He in eastern China in Hebei Province, approximately 1300 km (808 miles) from the previous location! We believe that Bai He began migration sometime between the 3rd and 17th (due to signal interference in eastern China, we are uncertain when Bai He left the wintering area). We are hopeful that we will continue to receive periodic signals from Bai He's transmitter, so that we can continue to follow his northern migration.

Meanwhile, in late February Neya, the Siberian Crane that was released this winter in northern Iran, moved approximately 240 km (149 miles) northwest from her wintering site. Unfortunately, we have not received any new location data from her transmitter since March 1, 2009.

Click on the image to the right to view an updated map of the spring migration.

World Water Day

Last month we shared information about World Wetlands Day, an annual celebration of our global wetlands. On March 22 the United Nations is sponsoring World Water Day focusing on our global fresh water resources. This year's theme is Shared Water - Shared Opportunities and focuses on transboundary water resources, such as the lakes or rivers and even underground aquifers that cross political boundaries. To learn more about this event, visit the World Water Day website. You can download a World Water Day video focusing on the Nile River, posters, send a World Water Day e-card and view an online image gallery.

Similar to our water resources, cranes also cross political boundaries during their annual migrations, and we are waiting to see where our two banded Siberian Cranes migrate this spring. We have received limited location data from both cranes over the past two weeks. Our last location for Neya, the crane in Iran, was approx. 240 km to the northwest of her release site, which may indicate that she has started to migrate (click on the map to the right to view a map of the cranes' current locations). We're hopeful that we will receive new data from her transmitter, so that we can learn where she will spend the spring and summer. Meanwhile, we are also waiting to confirm if Bai He, our banded Siberian Crane wintering in the Poyang Lake Basin, has begun his migration. We will post updates on the cranes' locations as we learn more.


We've received requests from you for images of the three white cranes (Whooping, Siberian and Red-crowned Cranes) to incorporate into your classroom activities. You can download images on the International Crane Foundation's online photo gallery, and I wanted to pass along a link for a site that I recently discovered - ARKive: Images of life on Earth. The site includes background information, images and videos of our three white cranes. Click on the links below to view these pages*

Whooping Crane

Siberian Crane

Red-crowned Crane

*Note that according to the ARKive website "Teachers, educators, researchers and students may incorporate these materials [images and video] into their lesson plans, presentations, work sheets, projects etc in hard copy and digital format for internal educational use."

Spring is in the Air

As we wait for the last snow to melt in the north, and the buds to open on trees and shrubs further south in the United States, we are also preparing for the northern spring migrations of wildlife throughout the world. Birds in the south are preparing for their northern flights and are gaining extra fat to fuel their spring migrations, including cranes in North America, Europe and Asia.

Last fall, we tracked two young Siberian Cranes as they completed their first migration from Yakutia, Russia to their wintering area in the Poyang Lake Basin in China. We tracked both cranes over 3,000 miles as they journeyed south (see the migration map below) and have monitored their movements through the winter months. We've stopped receiving location data from one of the cranes (No. 59948), but we are still receiving periodic signals from the second crane, Bai He (formerly No. 59947).

We hope we can track Bai He as he begins his northern migration in a few weeks, to learn where young Siberian Cranes along the East Asia flyway spend their first summer away from their parents (researchers believe these cranes may spend their first summer in a different location from breeding adults).

We are also excited to be tracking a new Siberian Crane along the species' western flyway this spring. The crane, Neya, was raised in captivity at Oka Crane Breeding Center in western Russia and released on the western population's wintering grounds in northern Iran in December 2008. Neya has paired with a male Siberian Crane that returned to the wintering grounds in fall 2008 (see image below - Neya is on the left). We are hopeful that the two cranes will migrate together, so that we can learn where the cranes summer. The male Siberian Crane is the only confirmed remaining wild crane in the western population, so this migration is very special. There are unconfirmed reports of other Siberian Cranes along the western flyway, but we are not certain where they spend the summer.

We hope that you will join us in the coming weeks as we track the Siberian Crane spring migrations in Asia!

Spring Migration Part 2

Our last posting in early April on the Siberian Crane spring migration followed the migrating cranes to Liaoning Province in eastern China (see Spring Migration). By the end of April, over 1,000 Siberian Cranes were observed at Momoge Nature Reserve in Jilin Province. The wetlands in Momoge and surrounding reserves in Northeast China provide safe places for the cranes to rest and feed as they continue their migration north. Next stop - Siberia!

Siberian Cranes at Momoge Nature Reserve.
Photos by Ms. Ren Qing.

Spring Migration

Like our Whooping and Sandhill Cranes in the eastern United States, the Siberian Cranes along the east Asia flyway have started their spring migration north. Since March 27 more than 1,000 Siberian Cranes have been observed in central Liaoning Province (Liaoning Province is located northeast of Tianjin, one of our Three White Cranes project sites along the Bohai Sea in eastern China). On March 31, a banded Siberian Crane was observed in a flock of over 800 cranes in this area. The bird was banded as a chick in Yakutia, Russia in August 2005. The Siberian Cranes will migrate over 3,000 miles from their wintering grounds in the Poyang Lake Basin to their breeding and summering grounds in northeastern Russia.

Siberian Cranes in Liaoning Province. Photos by Zhou Haixiang