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Two great white cranes walking on grassland

Siberian crane

Siberian cranes are the only crane species with serrated edges on their beaks. The serrations make gripping slippery prey, such as fish and frogs, much easier. Siberian cranes also eat roots, berries and seeds.

Scientific name: Grus leucogeranus

Rank: Species

Common names:

  • Siberian white crane,
  • Snow crane

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Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Siberian crane taxa

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

The Siberian crane can be found in a number of locations including: Arctic, Asia, China, Russia. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Siberian crane distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

Conservation Status

Critically Endangered

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

Population trend: Decreasing

Year assessed: 2009

Classified by: IUCN 3.1

About

The Siberian Crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus), also known as the Siberian White Crane or the Snow Crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes. They are distinctive among the cranes, adults are nearly all snowy white, except for their black primary feathers that are visible in flight and with two breeding populations in the Arctic tundra of western and eastern Russia. The eastern populations migrate during winter to China while the western population winters in Iran and formerly, in India. Among the cranes, they make the longest distance migrations. Their populations, particularly those in the western range, have declined drastically in the 20th century due to hunting along their migration routes and habitat degradation. The world population was estimated in 2010 at about 3,200 birds, mostly belonging to the eastern population with about 95% of them wintering in the Poyang lake basin in China, a habitat that may be altered by the Three Gorges Dam. In western Siberia there are only around ten of these cranes in the wild.

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