Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Diet Shift and Its Impact on Foraging Behavior of Siberian Cranes in Poyang Lake

Every winter, more than 95% of the species' global population congregates at Poyang Lake, and feeds on tubers of Vallisneria spiralis in shallow water and mudflat habitat. In this study, we reported the first sighting of large numbers of Siberian cranes foraging at wet meadows, where they fed on a different plant due to extreme scarcity of their preferred tuber.  By Yifie Jia et al (PLOS ONE).