The Breeding Behaviors Of Red-Crowned Crane (Grus Japonensis) And White-Naped Crane (Grus Vipio) At Initial Recovering Stage In Zhalong Nature Reserve

In Zhalong Nature Reserve, the breeding behaviors of wild, captive and B (one is captive, the other is wild) pairs of red-crowned crane and wild, B and the A (unusual wild) white-naped cranes were observed in April 2003 and April to May 2004 using scan sampling method. The territories of the cranes were located by reference-coordinate method, and the distances of two level response of the crane to the human's approach were measured.The results of breeding behaviors showed that various behaviors of red-crowned crane and white-naped crane during breeding season are regular. There were no obviously differences of the different cranes pairs in each breeding period. The most important reason of the different behaviors performances was food. The feeding behaviors were the most important behavior except the breeding behaviors in breeding period of the red-crowned cranes and white-naped cranes, and the frequency of feeding behaviors were well-distributed each day. The alertness of the wild red-crowned cranes and the wild white-naped cranes were the best, and then were the B red-crowned cranes, A white-naped cranes and B white-naped cranes, alertness of the captive red-crowned cranes were the worst. There were great differences of the behaviors between two years. The feeding, walking, preening and resting behaviors of the drought were less than waterlogging, at the same time the alert behaviors were more.The average size of occupied territory by wild red-crowned cranes in incubating period was 1.826+0.247 km2 (n = 2), captive red-crowned cranes in courtship period was 0.970 km2, in incubating period was 0.534+0.244 km2 (n = 5), wild white-naped cranes in courtship was 0.668+0.025 km2 (n =2), B white-naped cranes was 0.294 km2, A white-naped cranes was 0.328 km2. The abundance of the food was the key factor of the size of cranes' territory. The area of the territory in courtship period was more than incubating period of the red-crowned crane. The size of occupied territory by red-crowned cranes was larger than white-naped cranes.The response of the cranes to human's approach was regarded as two degree, 1: keep alert but did not go, 2: walking away quickly or flying. The results showed that: the wild red-crowned of 2 degree was 415+107m, the wild white-naped cranes of 2 degree was 289+59m, the captive red-crowned cranes in public homerange of 1 degree was 59+27m, 2 degree was 7+4m, the B white-naped cranes in public homerange of 1 degree was 33+16m, 2 degree was 14+7m, in its territory of 2 degree was 234+48m; the A white-naped cranes in public homerange of 2 degree was 102+44m, in its territory was 147+52m. There were great influences of the humen disturbance to thecranes' breeding behaviors. The incubating period of the cranes were broken off by humen taking eggs for artificial hatching.