Abstract
The Great Bustard (Otis tarda) holds the distinction of the heaviest bird to undertake migration as well as the greatest degree of sexual size dimorphism among living birds. Though the migration of the species has been widely discussed in the literature, researchers know little about the migration patterns of the subspecies in Asia (Otis tarda dybowskii), especially the males. In 2018 and 2019, we captured six O. t. dybowskii (five males and one female) at their breeding sites in eastern Mongolia and tagged them with GPS-GSM satellite transmitters. This constitutes the first time that the Great Bustards of the eastern subspecies have been tracked in eastern Mongolia. We found sex differences in migration patterns: males started migration later but arrived earlier than the female in the spring; males had 1/3 of the migration duration and migrated about 1/2 the distance of the female. Additionally, Great Bustards exhibited high fidelity to their breeding, post-breeding, and wintering sites. For conservation, only 22.51% of GPS location fixes of bustards were within protected areas, and less than 5.0% for wintering sites and during migration. Within two years, half of the Great Bustards we tracked died at their wintering sites or during migration. We recommend establishing more protected areas at wintering sites and rerouting or undergrounding powerlines in areas where Great Bustards are densely distributed to eliminate collisions.
Zuammenfassung
Zugmuster und Schutzstatus der Asiatischen Großtrappe ( Otis tarda dybowskii ) in Nordostasien.
Die Großtrappe (Otis tarda) ist der schwerste Zugvogel und weist in der Körpergröße den größten Geschlechtsdimorphismus unter den heutzutage lebenden Vögeln auf. Zwar wird der Zug dieser Art in der Literatur ausführlich diskutiert, aber man weiß nur wenig über die Zugmuster der Unterart in Asien (Otis tarda dybowskii), vor allem der Männchen. 2018 und 2019 fingen wir sechs O. t. dybowskii (fünf Männchen und ein Weibchen) an ihren Brutplätzen in der östlichen Mongolei und versahen sie mit GPS-GSM-Satellitensendern. Dies war das erste Mal, dass die Großtrappen der östlichen Unterart in der östlichen Mongolei nachverfolgt wurden. Wir stellten geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede in den Zugmustern fest: Männchen begannen ihre Wanderung später, kamen aber früher als die Weibchen im Frühjahr an; Männchen zogen ein Drittel der Zugzeit und legten etwa die Hälfte der Strecke der Weibchen zurück. Außerdem zeigten die Großtrappen eine große Standorttreue zu ihren Brut-, Aufzucht- und Überwinterungsgebieten. Zum Schutz der Trappen wurden innerhalb von Schutzgebieten nur 22,51% der GPS-Ortungen vorgenommen und in den Winterquartieren und während des Zugs weniger als 5,0%. Die Hälfte der von uns nachverfolgten Großtrappen starb innerhalb von zwei Jahren in ihren Überwinterungsgebieten oder auf dem Zug. Wir empfehlen, in den Überwinterungsgebieten mehr Schutzgebiete einzurichten und Stromleitungen in Gebieten, in denen Großtrappen stark vertreten sind, umzuleiten oder unterirdisch zu verlegen, um Kollisionen zu vermeiden.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available for protecting the vulnerable eastern subspecies of Great Bustard, but are stored at Movebank (www.movebank.org) in the study “Great Bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii) in Northeast Asia” (Movebank Study ID: 2225327907) and can be made available by the author upon reasonable request.
Code availability
The analyses generated during the current study are available on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Yun yan, Xilin Gol League Forest Public Security for helping us with fieldwork and Professor Xinhai Li for guidance in the statistical calculation. We thank the long-term support of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. We thank Dr. Tim Treuer at Princeton University for his assistance with the English language and grammatical editing. Special thanks to our hardworking driver Bundaa and local herder family Khurelee in the Ugtam area.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31770573).
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YG conceived the project idea and contributed substantial materials, resources, and funding. GP, AG, BE, OT, DK, ZW and YG carried out fieldwork. YW and CM analysed and visualized the data. YW drafted the manuscript with the support of GP, CM and YG. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The study was performed under the licences of the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism of Mongolia (Ethics approval number: 10).
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Wang, Y., Purev-Ochir, G., Gungaa, A. et al. Migration patterns and conservation status of Asian Great Bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii) in northeast Asia. J Ornithol 164, 341–352 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-02030-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-02030-y