Аннотация:Due to the pandemic lock-downs and travel restrictions the wildlife got an unexpected break from human pressure. For example, the ban on spring hunting in the entire Amur River Basin prompted by the pandemic, together with fewer grass fires and record precipitation that restored the surface water levels, created excellent conditions for water birds. In May, surveys of waterbirds in the southern
Amur Region conducted by our local partners with a quadcopter drone sighted 17 pairs of White-naped Cranes (14 nests with eggs or recently hatched chicks, and three families walking with chicks) and 20 active nests of Oriental Storks in Muraviovka Wildlife Refuge (mostly in the area overlapping with the Park land) but found only one breeding pair of Red-crowned Crane. Overall, in 2020, according to Anton Sassin and Mikhail Parilov from Khingansky State Nature Reserve, 179 nesting pairs of White-naped and only nine pairs of Red-crowned Cranes were counted in the southern part of the Amur Region. In early September, our staff recorded two families of Red-crowned Cranes in the Park – each with one flightless chick. Probably, the second pair began breeding after the drone survey.