Abstract
The historical habitat of swamps and a lake in the Hula Valley was modified during the early 1950’s. The Swamps and the old Hula Lake were drained and the land was converted to an agricultural development. As a result of inappropriate cultivation, it was necessary to once more implement management improvement. It was done within the Hula Project. Part of the Hula Project was a modified usage of 10% of the area previously used for agriculture for eco-tourism. Independently, thousands of migratory Cranes attracted by peanut crop leftover started wintering in the valley. These bird flocks significantly improved the management objective to ensure prevention of nutrient flux into Lake Kinneret. Consequently, the partnerships between Kinneret water quality protection, nature conservation and agricultural utilization of the peat land is presently operated. Migratory wintered Cranes is a factor of management stability accompanied by costly artificial feeding for bird in a dedicated land block to prevent damage to adjacent crops.
Highlights
The geographical distribution of Common crane (Grus grus) is stretched along the northern parts of Europe and Asia
In order to prevent agricultural crop Crane damage, the birds are deported from cultivated fields at the beginning of the migration landing (October-November) and later fed by Corn seeds in a special land block dedicated for feeding site (“Crane Hula Restaurant”)
Crane wintering created severe difficulties, including damage of agricultural crop and nutrient sources in Lake Agmon-Hula and further to Lake Kinneret: 50 × 103 Cranes excrete 5.24 gP/Ind./day during 170 days (October through Mid March) and produce approximately 44.5 tons of Total Phosphorus, which is mixed with Hula Valley Peat soil and Lake Agmon-Hula waters [4]
Summary
The geographical distribution of Common crane (Grus grus) is stretched along the northern parts of Europe and Asia. Breeding populations are found in Scandinavia, Finland Northern Germany and Sweden. Largest flocks of breeding population are known from Russia, where cranes can be found seasonally in Ukraine region throughout the Chukchi Peninsula. Breeding flights extend as far south as Manchuria but mostly in Russia. Common Crane is a long distance migrator. Migration to South last from August to October and the Northern-
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