Using citizen science in assessing the distribution of Sarus Crane (Grus antigone antigone) in Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

The Indian Sarus Crane (Grus antigone antigone), is the world's tallest flying bird and a globally 'Vulnerable' species as per IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is the only resident breeding crane in India. Citizen scientists currently play active roles in a varied range of ecological assignments, and their contributions have enabled scientists to collect large amounts of data at minimal cost. eBird is a large citizen science database that contains a large and growing volume of bird count data which has been successfully used to analyze diversity, distributions of bird species. The present work deals with the utilization and presentation of citizen science data to map the distribution of Sarus Cranes in Uttar Pradesh in the last 10 years (that is 2008 to 2017). Mapping is done using Arc GIS 10.2 software and resulted in various patterns of Sarus sightings in the state. The study concluded that a total of 1,902 Sarus documented by 342 social groups or e-birders from 43 districts of Uttar Pradesh. This study showed public participation as an important data collection tool for the species, which has a reportedly large distribution range.   Key words: Birds, public participation, IUCN, eBird, mapping.