Importance of rice field in the CCZ area of South Korea

Sang-Don LEE

The crane species is endangered in the IUCN Red List category. Among 15 crane species there are 4 species in Korea : RC, WN, hooded-, and common. Among them RC and WN are regular visitor in DMZ. Most of species migrate long distances and stop over several rest-sites during their migration. For WN the DMZ can be used most stopover sites; however for RC this area should be important sites for wintering.

We studied the winter foraging activity of the RC and the WN in the Cheolwon area of the CCZ area, adjacent to the DMZ. Due to its limited development, the CCZ is one of the most critical migratory habitats for these endangered cranes. Farmers in the CCZ now plow most of their fields after the fall harvest rather than in the spring as they did previously. Cranes observed on the few remaining unplowed fields in the CCZ spent more time foraging than plowed fields. This behavior is a clear indication that the unplowed fields contain more food resources for the cranes than do the plowed fields. This is the first behavioral demonstration of differences in foraging between plowed and unplowed rice paddies for cranes. We believe that the changes associated with plowing rice paddies may be detrimental to these threatened cranes, and efforts to promote unplowed fields in the CCZ should be encouraged.