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Individual migration routes, places of key intermediate stopovers and wintering regions of Bewick's swans that inhabit the northwestern regions of Yamal (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District). The key intermediate stopover sites: 1, Ob Bay; 2, the area between two Ob channels; 3, the Ob valley; 4, the Turgai Lowland; 5, the Iliyskaya valley; 6, the Aral Sea; 7, the northern Caspian region; 8, the eastern Black Sea region; 9, the northern Black Sea region; 10, the Barabinskaya Lowland; 11, the Basin of Great Lakes (the Mongolian People's Republic); 12, Orog-Nuur Lake (the Mongolian People's Republic); 13-14, Inner Mongolia (the Chinese People's Republic).
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The migration corridors of Bewick's swan, which inhabits the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District , were identified in 2015-2017 using GPS-GMS transmitters. It was shown that even the individuals that inhabit the same region widely used different wintering sites. The birds that nest and molt in southern Yamal (Baydaratskaya Bay) were found to migrate...
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... 2015, the tagged Bewick's swans clearly demon- strated divergence from the migratory routes: three birds flew to southeastern China and reached Poyang Lake (Jiangxi Province, China) and the Shanghai area. In the same place, the birds tagged with our col- Fig. 1): two individuals (a bird with a brood, which was equipped with a transmitter, and a bird tagged with a neckbad) came to the wintering site in the Evros River delta; three birds came to Poyang Lake. In addition, three birds (after resting at stopover sites in the Turgai Lowland) did not continue their migration along the traditional ...
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... the Evros River delta; three birds came to Poyang Lake. In addition, three birds (after resting at stopover sites in the Turgai Lowland) did not continue their migration along the traditional southwestern path towards the Caspian Sea, but went along individual routes to different regions of Middle and Central Asia, where they stayed for wintering (Fig. 1). Thus, we located the wintering sites of Bewick's swan in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China and in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In the latter, Bewick's swan is considered to be a rare migratory species (Kashkarov, 1987). However, it turned out that the migration corridor of Bewick's swan is much wider than we expected. ...
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... the Basin of Great Lakes (the Mongolian People's Republic); 12, Orog-Nuur Lake (the Mongolian People's Republic); 13-14, Inner Mongolia (the Chinese People's Republic). they fly to southeastern China. These routes are sepa- rated quite early, but in some cases swans can change the direction of migration, already being in the migra- tion corridor (Fig. ...
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... on the migration route is necessary for Bewick's swans primarily to replenish the energy reserves spent on active flight. Regardless of the number of places for short stopovers, we can identify 14 key places where migrating swans make long stopovers (Fig. ...
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... Bewick's swan is an extremely rare species there; only few arrivals are known (Ptushenko, 1952, Volkov et al., 1998Chovan and Kazannik, 2015, etc.). The main flyways lay either along the coasts of the North and Baltic seas (Nagy et al., 2012), or, as our results showed, through the northern and eastern Black Sea coast and northern Caspian region. However, the number of encounters has recently increased in Ukraine, Belarus, and some regions of central Russia (Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, and Vologda oblasts) ( Chovan and Kazannik, 2015; www.erbirds.ru, ...
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Citations
... Thus, direct migratory flights of waterfowl nesting in western Siberia to southeast Asia travel through the aforementioned Dzhungarian Gates along the chain of lakes through Sasykkol-Alakol-Jalanashkol-Ebinur-Bagrashkol-Lobnor and further in a southeasterly direction to Qinghai Lake or along the Ili River valley in the same direction. With the help of GPS tracking, the last route was confirmed for Bewick's Swan (Cygnus bewickii) from the nesting site in the lower reaches of the Ob River to the beginning of the Ili River [31]. In addition, no influenza viruses were isolated in western Siberia, and influenza outbreaks among poultry were never recorded north of the forest steppe subzone. ...
... Obviously, a further understanding of the ways and mechanisms of transmission of the avian influenza virus to Europe from southeast Asia requires clarification of the current state of flyways and the population structure of influenza carrier species nesting in western Siberia. Practical investigations in this field are especially important as actual data are lacking, because in the last 30 years, the ringing of waterfowl in this region has practically ceased, and neither tracking, with the exception of the mentioned work by Vangeluwe et al. [31], nor the analysis of stable isotopes in feathers have been used either. ...
Citation: Druzyaka, A.V.; Druzyaka, O.R.; Sharshov, K.A.; Kasianov, N.; Dubovitskiy, N.; Derko, A.A.; Frolov, I.G.; Torniainen, J.; Wang, W.; Minina, M.A.; et al. Stable Isotope Analysis Reveals Common Teal (Anas crecca) Molting Sites in Western Siberia: Implications for Avian Influenza Virus Spread. Microorganisms 2024, 12, 357. Abstract: The wetlands of southwestern Siberia (SWS) are a crossroads of bird migration routes, bringing avian influenza (AIV) strains that were previously isolated in different regions of the continent to Siberia. It is known that Anseriformes that breed in SWS migrate for the winter to central Hindustan or further west, while their migration routes to southeast Asia (SEA) remain unconfirmed. Here, we mapped the molting sites of the migrating Common Teals (Anas crecca) via analyzing stable hydrogen isotope content in feathers of hunters' prey and supplemented the analysis with the genetic structure of viruses isolated from teals in the same region. Post-breeding molt of autumn teals most likely occurred within the study region, whereas probable pre-breeding molting grounds of spring teals were in the south of Hindustan. This link was supported by viral phylogenetic analysis, which showed a close relationship between SWS isolates and viruses from south and southeast Asia. Most viral segments have the highest genetic similarity and the closest phylogenetic relationships with viruses from teal wintering areas in southeast Asian countries, including India and Korea. We assume that the winter molt of SWS breeding teals on the Hindustan coast suggests contacts with the local avifauna, including species migrating along the coast to SEA. Perhaps this is one of the vectors of AIV transmission within Eurasia.
... We analysed photos of swans taken during aerial surveys conducted on these peninsulas between 24 June and 03 October in 2015-2017 and 2019-2020. These periods correspond to the brood rearing, moulting, and autumn migration of swans (Pennycuick et al., 1996;Boiko & Wikelski, 2019;Vangeluwe et al., 2018). The surveys were carried out using a Sterkh-1 aircraft, flying on sub-meridional transects or perpendicular to the sea coast. ...
The European population of Cygnus columbianus bewickii has a declining trend in number of individuals. Anthropogenic disturbance could be one of the reasons for this decline. Disturbance influences animal behaviour, including the manifestation of behavioural lateralisation. Therefore, investigating the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on behavioural lateralisation is essential for biodiversity conservation. Behavioural lateralisation manifests itself in a preference to use one of two paired organs (limbs or sensory organs) and a preference to avoid obstacles from a certain side. Earlier studies of behavioural lateralisation did not consider the locomotion type as an independent variable factor in the analysis, although it could affect the manifestation of behavioural lateralisation. We studied the influence of anthropogenic disturbance on behavioural lateralisation of swans, depending on the type of locomotion (swimming or flying). We have analysed 492 photos from aerial counts of two swan species (Cygnus columbianus bewickii, C. cygnus) in Yamal Peninsula and Gydan Peninsula. The photos were taken from a plane, while the birds were escaping from it as a source of anthropogenic disturbance. Pairs without and with chicks alone or in flocks were encountered swimming or flying. We found that swimming swans had a strong right-sided bias and right-eye bias for avoidance and observing the source of anthropogenic disturbance, and flying swans had a left bias. Swimming C. c. bewickii and C. cygnus exhibited similar behavioural lateralisation. These results were the same for following and leading birds. The presence of chicks did not change the direction of behavioural lateralisation but strengthened it for the following partners. The differences in behavioural lateralisation could be caused by the fact that swans in flight experience greater fear of a present aircraft than when they are on water. We conclude that the locomotion types influence behavioural lateralisation in response to anthropogenic disturbance. We recommend paying attention to accompanying factors when comparing the results of lateralisation studies. As the left side bias of flying birds in our study indicates that flying birds are more stressed than swimming ones, we recommend not forcing birds to fly during observations to reduce their stress.
... Лена отсутствуют. Анализ тренда этой популяции осложняется еще и фактом смены мест зимовок ямальских лебедей (Розенфельд и др., 2019) и симпатричным обитанием двух, а возможно и трех, пролетных популяций на п-ове Ямал ( Vangeluwe et al., 2018). Поскольку наши учетные площади полностью совпадают с историческими (изначально предназначенными для учета гаг, а не лебедей), мы не можем не признать фактом, что ареал лебедя значительно расширился на север, особенно в дельте р. ...
The tundra of the eastern Asian Arctic is inhabited by at least three flyway populations of the Tundra swan: the East Asian continental migratory flyway population of C. c. bewickii; the western Pacific flyway population of C. c. bewickii, and the western (American) flyway population of C. c. columbianus. The main objective of the present paper is to assess population trends by comparing information on the historical (the only one in the tundra of northeastern Asia) bird aerial survey in 1993–1995 with the data of our aerial survey held in 2020–2021. Another aim was to estimate the proportion of breeding birds in different flyway populations. The size of the zone of intergradation C. c. bewickii and C. c. columbianus in Chukotka and the level of hybridization have so far remained poorly studied, this issue required clarification. Aerial survey data for 2020–2021 were processed using QantumGIS 9.16.5 software. The system included the following layers: a vector layer of the world map; routes of aerial surveys for 2020 and 2021; and polygons of counts for 1993–1995. The system made it possible to calculate the length of the survey. Estimates for each region were calculated for the extrapolation area given in the historical survey. Between 1993–1995 and 2020–2021, an increase in the numbers of all three flyway populations of the Tundra swan was revealed on the breeding grounds. The East Asian continental flyway population increased 3.86 times, vs. 3.05 times for the West Pacific flyway population (while the documented growth of this population was 2.1 times, according to mid-winter counts over the same period). The Western (American) flyway population grew 2.5 times. We believe that the northern border of the summer range of the Tundra swan has significantly shifted to the north, following the summer climate change and the northward shift of the subarctic tundra zone. Registration of nests and broods in areas where only non-breeding birds were recorded during the historical survey is additional evidence of a northward displacement of the range. Kymyneyveem R (about 175.6° W) borders the areas of dominance of C. c. bewickii and C. c. columbianus. The switch in dominance has been triggered off, as there is no zone where both subspecies would occur in equal proportions. The overlap area of both subspecies extends for 600 km along the Arctic coast.
... Riverine floodplains and especially habitats along the waterline ecotone provide favourable conditions for migratory shorebirds and wildfowl, enabling them to refuel quickly before resuming their passage (Ebbinge et al. 1982;Mitchell and Grubaugh 2005;Meissner et al. 2011;Vangeluwe et al. 2017). Birds usually spend more time and energy at stopovers than in flight during migration (Alerstam and Hedenström 1998;Schaub et al. 2001), and hence must find sites to rest and refuel. ...
River development and dam construction alter ecological conditions by changing geomorphologic processes affecting the nutrient and biogeochemical cycles in riverine ecosystems. Changes to the food chain might thus harm the quality of migratory shorebirds’ stopover sites. In this study we compare the abundance of potential prey and the foraging behaviour of migrating adult and juvenile Common Ringed Plovers in autumn at unregulated and regulated stretches of the Vistula River, an important stopover site for migrant shorebirds. We collected invertebrates from the substrate’s surface and the top 3 cm. We also observed the birds’ foraging behaviour, noting characteristic feeding techniques, such as pecking, probing and foot trembling; foraging intensity; distance between foraging individuals, and the number of aggressive interactions. The lower abundance of invertebrates in the regulated section below the Włocławek Dam extended the plovers’ foraging times and required more pecks per minute for them to meet their energy requirements. The confined foraging habitat of the regulated river forced the migrants to gather closer than on the unregulated section, causing more intraspecific aggression. Nevertheless, worse foraging conditions in the Vistula’s regulated section affected only the inexperienced juvenile Ringed Plovers migrating for the first time. Our study shows that the river below the dam offers less potential prey for migrating shorebirds than the semi-natural section above the dam. Lower quality stopover sites may reduce juvenile plovers’ prospects of successful migration, because the rate of fat deposition in migratory shorebirds is related to conditions at stopover habitats, which also affect their speed of migration.
... For swans wintering in China, the Yamal-China and Lena-China migration routes have previously been described through successful tracking of nine individuals (Huang et al. 2018;Vangeluwe et al. 2018). In this study, we determined the migratory range of Chinesewintering Bewick's Swans from a larger sample size, which also enlightened us about a few birds, which showed abnormal migrations. ...
Two of the most fundamental ecological questions about any species relate to where they occur and in what abundance. Here, we combine GPS telemetry data, survey data and expert knowledge for the first time to define two distinct flyways (the East Asian Continental and West Pacific flyways), migration routes and abundance for the Eastern population of Bewick’s Swan Cygnus columbianus bewickii. The Eastern population is the largest flyway population, supporting c. 77% of Bewick’s Swan numbers globally. GPS telemetry data showed that birds breeding in the Russian arctic from the Yamal Peninsula to c. 140°E (including the Lena and Yana Deltas), winter in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China (which we label the “East Asian Continental flyway”). Bewick’s Swans breeding from the Indigirka River east to the Koluchin Bay winter in Japan, mostly in Niigata, Yamagata and Ishikawa Prefectures (the “West Pacific flyway”). There was no overlap in migration routes used by tagged individuals from the two flyways. Counts of Bewick’s Swans in the East Asian Continental flyway during the 21st century have shown wide between-year variations, reflecting incomplete coverage in earlier years. Bewick’s Swans in this flyway currently numbers c. 65,000 birds based on extensive wintering survey coverage, compared to c. 81,000 in the early 2000s, based on less complete coverage. Chinese-wintering swans now concentrate mainly (c. 80%) at Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province and Hubei Lakes (mostly in Longgan Lake), compared to a more widespread distribution both within Poyang and throughout the Auhui Lakes in 2004 and 2005. In contrast, Bewick’s Swans of the West Pacific flyway now numbers c. 40,000, compared to just 542 in 1970. This population has shown no significant overall change since 2004, when it numbered c. 45,000 birds. Small numbers within this population probably also winter in South Korea. These results provide our first basic understanding of the winter distribution of Chinese- and Japanese-wintering Bewick’s Swans in relation to their breeding areas, confirming the need to coordinate future research and monitoring in the two flyways, as well as the need for more information on swans wintering in South Korea.
... Additionally, at least eight more species overwinter in numbers exceeding 1% of their regional population (handrinos et al. 2015). Among these is the critically endangered Fennoscandian population of the Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus which winters in its entirety for a few weeks each year at the Evros delta (VougiouKaLou et al. 2017) and the Bewick's Swan Cygnus bewickii (VangELuwE et al. 2018). At the same time, the Evros delta is the most famous and popular wetland for waterfowl hunting among Greek hunters . ...
The Evros delta is one of the most important wetlands for wintering waterfowl in Greece and the most popular among waterfowl hunters. This study addresses hunting activity and harvest while also investigating the relationship between weather conditions and hunting activity to suggest ways of improving waterfowl management. We counted wintering waterfowl and hunter numbers, and conducted hunter bag surveys during December–February over four hunting seasons. We calculated a 10-day goose and duck Preferential Shooting Index (PSI), which is the ratio of observed number of shot birds to the number of birds expected to have been shot if the birds were shot in proportion to their availability. Common Teal, Mallard and Greater White-fronted Goose were the most abundant species both in the field and in hunter bags. The mean number of hunters/day was 99.9, with each one shooting on average 2.5 birds/day. The overall waterfowl harvested accounted for 1.3% of the total waterfowl population. For geese this proportion was six times higher (8.7%), while for ducks alone and protected species was 1.2% and 1.4% respectively. Geese were shot more often than expected (PSI 6.55), while ducks and protected species were shot according to their availability (PSI 0.86 and 1.02, respectively). Wind speed, precipitation and geese number in the field were the best predictors of overall harvest and number of hunters. To reduce goose overshooting and the probability of protected species being accidentally shot, we suggest habitat management actions for the geese feeding areas and hunters’ awareness raising.
... Moreover, even when Bewick's Swan counts for Greece were included in the Northwest European population totals, there was a decline from 1995 onwards, though the population recovery in 2015 would be more substantial in the event that the vast majority of the birds in Greece emanated from the population wintering in northwest Europe. This seems very unlikely, however, because tracking of 11 Bewick's Swans tagged on the Yamal peninsula in [2015][2016] showed that at least some of the swans wintering in Greece migrate along the River Ob and Turgai lowlands to the north Caspian region before continuing to the Evros Delta ( Vangeluwe et al. 2018), suggesting a westward shift of swans from the Caspian population. Several recent studies have reported increased numbers of Caspian population Bewick's Swans migrating through the Volgograd region of southern Russia towards wintering areas in the Black Sea region (Belik et al. 2012;Belik & Gugueva 2016). ...
Coordinated international censuses of the Northwest European Bewick’s Swan Cygnus columbianus bewickii population have been undertaken across the swans’ wintering range at c. 5-year intervals since 1984. During the early years of the study, numbers increased steadily to a peak of 29,780 individuals in January 1995, but then declined by 39.4% to 18,057 swans counted in January 2010 before showing a partial recovery to 20,149 recorded in January 2015. Changes in distribution across the wintering range were also recorded; a higher proportion of the population now remains in more easterly countries (notably Germany) in mid-winter, whilst only a handful of birds migrated to Ireland (at the western edge of the range) during the 2000s compared to >1,000 wintering there at the start of the study. Variation between censuses in the proportion of swans recorded in different parts of the range were attributable to weather conditions, with more swans wintering further north in warmer years. The overall percentage of cygnets recorded in each of the census years ranged from 9.6% in 2010 to 13.2% in 2005, with no obvious consistency over time in the distribution of cygnets across the wintering range. There were however changes between 1990 and 2015 in the swans’ use of feeding habitats, with a decline in the proportion of birds on pasture and a corresponding increase in those on arable land. Decreases in the total population size and changes in distribution in the 21st century have implications for the designation and resultant protection of sites of international importance for the species.
... For example, Li et al. (2018) combined satellite tracking of swans with phylogenetic analyses of viruses to demonstrate that Whooper Swans were a vector in the transmission of H5N1 along a migratory route between China and Mongolia. In another example, Vangeluwe et al. (2018) and Wang et al. (2018a) demonstrated the previously unknown connectivity of Bewick's Swans breeding in the Yamal Peninsula (northwest Russia) with winter quarters in China, where they mix with breeders from the Russian Far East. ...
... Since these initial studies, devices have become smaller and increasingly affordable, which has provided a suite of valuable tools for the study of swan movements (Lehrke et al. 2018), and helped to improve our understanding of the extent and timing of swan movements, from localised patterns of habitat use within a site, to long distance migrations within major flyways (e.g. Nolet et al. 2014;Nuijten et al. 2014;Chen et al. 2016;Ely & Meixell 2016;Vangeluwe et al. 2018;Wang et al. 2018a). In Far East Eurasia, these devices are currently helping to resolve previously unknown links between breeding, moulting, staging and wintering areas (e.g. ...
Given their popularity with researchers and public alike, together with their well-documented importance in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, fundamental and applied research on swans continues to develop in the 21st century. The 6th International Swan Symposium (6th ISS), was held at the Estonian University of Life Sciences in Tartu, Estonia, in October 2018. The symposium brought together 101 delegates from 17 countries, with presentations on a range of topics on Cygnus and Coscoroba species, including monitoring, habitat and resource use, demography, movements and migration, and threats and conservation. The proceedings of the 6th ISS in this special issue of Wildfowl include select papers on swan research presented at the 6th ISS, covering a wide range of species, systems and issues. This paper presents a synthesis of the 6th ISS and an overview of current trends and future directions in swan research. Despite progress on many topics, southern hemisphere swan species continue to receive less attention than their northern hemisphere counterparts, whilst facing many of the same pressures. It is clear that, given the challenges facing swan researchers in the twenty-first century, international cooperation will continue to be vital. Swans are highly mobile animals and many populations undertake migrations spanning thousands of kilometres, and crucially do not recognise human geographic and political borders. Such international collaborations will be particularly important in coordinating future monitoring and conservation activities. The IUCN-SSC/Wetlands International Swan Specialist Group (SSG) will continue to facilitate international collaborations and communication among the global network of swan researchers, through its activities, website and annual newsletter. Given the substantial challenges and knowledge gaps documented here, there is no doubt that swan researchers will continue to benefit from regular symposia to share information and develop collaborations towards understanding and addressing emerging conservation issues. As such, we recommend holding International Swan Symposia every 4–5 years.
The tundra of the East Asian Arctic is inhabited by at least three flyway populations of the tundra swan: the East Asian continental migratory flyway population of C. c. bewickii; the western Pacific flyway population of C. c. bewickii, and the western (American) flyway population of C. c. columbianus. The main objective of the present paper is to assess population trends by comparing information on the historical bird aerial survey in 1993-1995 (the only one conducted in the tundra of northeastern Asia) with the data of our aerial survey held in 2020-2021. Another aim was to estimate the proportion of breeding birds in different fly-way populations. The size of the zone of intergradation of C. c. bewickii and C. c. columbianus in Chukotka and the level of hybridization have so far remained poorly studied; this issue requires clarification. The aerial survey data for 2020-2021 were processed using the QuantumGIS 9.16.5 software. The system included the following layers: a vector layer of the world map; routes of aerial surveys for 2020 and 2021; and polygons of counts for 1993-1995. The system made it possible to calculate the length of the survey. Estimates for each region were calculated for the extrapolation area given in the historical survey. Between 1993-1995 and 2020-2021, an increase in the numbers of all three flyway populations of the tundra swan was revealed on the breeding grounds. The East Asian continental flyway population increased 3.86 times versus 3.05 times for the West Pacific flyway population (while the documented growth of this population was 2.1 times, according to midwinter counts over the same period). The Western (American) flyway population grew 2.5 times. We believe that the northern border of the summer range of the tundra swan has significantly shifted to the north, following the summer climate change and the northward shift of the subarctic tundra zone. Registration of nests and broods in areas where only nonbreeding birds were recorded during the historical survey is additional evidence of a northward displacement of the range. The Kym''yneiveem River (about 175.6° W) borders the areas of dominance of C. c. bewickii and C. c. columbianus. A switch in dominance has been triggered, as there is no zone where both subspecies would occur in equal proportions. The overlapping area of both sub-species extends for 600 km along the Arctic coast.
