SATELLITE TRACKING OF WHITE-NAPED CRANE MIGRATION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE KOREAN DEMILITARIZED ZONE

Satellite-tracking of 15 White-naped Cranes (Grus vipio) from their Ja panese wintering grounds through the Korean Peninsula shows that there are four important regions for conserving migrant cranes: the Three R ivers Plain, the People's Republic of China; Lake Khanka, Russia; Kumy a, North Korea: and-most importantly-the demilitarized zone of the Kor ean Peninsula. Two site along the Korean demilitarized zone. Panmunch' om and Ch'olwon, were the most heavily used stopover sites, and they p resent complex international conservation challenges. Cranes stopped a t these sites for up to 87.1% of their total migration time; cranes mi grating to Zhalong Nature Reserve, China, made it their only lengthy s top. We report the migration routes and the importance of the identifi ed stopover sites, and we outline conservation issues at those sites.