Effects of Group Size on Vigilance Behavior of Wintering Common Cranes Grus grus

From January to March 2005, the effects of group size on the vigilance behavior of wintering Common Cranes Grus grus were studied at Lashihai Lake, Yunnan Province, China. We used scan sampling to record the group sizes and the number of vigilant individuals in each group, and focal sampling to record the frequency and duration of individual vigilance behavior. Both the vigilance efforts of groups and individuals significantly decreased as group size increased, but when the group size exceeded 30 individuals, the decrease of group vigilance became not significant (P>0.05), and the vigilance duration of adult cranes increased (P<0.01). The vigilance frequency of adults increased (P<0.05) when the size exceeded 50 individuals. Presumably, the maximal group size allowing the lowest vigilance for juvenile cranes was larger than that for adults, and the flocks composed of 20 to 30 individuals represented the optimal group size of wintering Common Cranes by considering only the vigilance behavior. Further research should focus on the synthesized effects of various factors.