Investigation on migration behavior of common cranes (Grus grus linnaeus, 1758) breeding in Turkey

Within the scope of this thesis, land use behaviors during summer, winter and migration stopovers, migration phenology and preferred land covers of the Common Crane's (Grus grus) Transcaucasian population breeding in Turkey, which formed an isolated population far from other subspecies, were examined. Since the population in the region is an isolated population, it is extremely important in terms of conservation biology and as it was suggested as a subspecies in the relevant literature, it is expected that the results obtained from the analysis of the movements will form a basis for conservation studies in Turkey. Within the scope of the study of crane movements, first of all, summer, winter and migration periods of cranes tracked by GPS transmitters between 2014 and 2019 were evaluated separately according to years. The home ranges they used in Turkey in the first summer period is 53.576,29 ha, of which 13.057,72 ha is the core areas determined by the Kernel Density Estimate. The summering areas in their second year of age are statistically significantly different from their first summers, the total home range is 95.648,7 ha and the total core areas are 79.503,6 ha. Their home range is increasing in the wintering areas, mostly due to the distance between the roosting areas and the feeding areas. A significant difference was found between the wintering areas according to age. It has been observed that the beginning of the autumn migration period of cranes varies on average between September and November, and the beginning of the spring migration period varies between January and March. The area they migrate for wintering differs from year to year, and they generally prefer shorter distances in their second year migration. While the mostly preferred habitat type in the summering areas is irrigated or non-irrigated arable agricultural lands, in wintering areas this situation varies according to the area where they spend the winter, but arable farming lands still constitute the majority.