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Search for Alternative Siberian Crane Wintering Grounds in I. R. of Iran

On 4-8 January 2004 there were surveys conducted in Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran adjoining Turkmenistan’s and Afghanistan’s borders to search for alternative Siberian Crane wintering grounds in Iran. Special attention was paid to a site near Turkmenistan’s border, where a PTT signal was coming from. The satellite transmitter was attached to an adult Eurasian Crane, which was caught and banded in the Kunovat River Basin, Western Siberia, Russia, in previous years.

The surveys showed that near Turkmenistan’s border and along the Hari Rud River there are not any habitats suitable for cranes to winter and stop over. There are few water reservoirs there and some of them, like lakes Sarakhs and Khangiran, are very salty. Nevertheless, Eurasian Crane migration is common there, and the spring migration is more visible then the autumn one. In spring, Eurasian Cranes fly south and southwest.

We could find suitable habitats only near Afghanistan’s border and discovered Eurasian Crane wintering grounds near the town of "Saleh Abad". We received reports of the presence of about 200 Eurasian Cranes at the time of the survey. There is not much water there either, but there are some irrigation ditches, which are enough for cranes to winter. This area constitutes the second furthest north wintering grounds of Eurasian Cranes. The first one is in Uzbekistan near Afghanistan’s border.

We could not make a survey of further sites towards the south, where other Eurasian Cranes probably winter, due to strained political situation near Afghanistan’s border.

For more information:

Yuri Markin, Oka Biosphere State Nature Reserve

Sadegh Sadeghi Zadegan, Iran Department of the Environment