Survival Status and Conservation Strategy of Endangered Waterbirds in Poyang Lake and its Watershed

A total of 33 endangered species of waterbirds belonging to 9 families or 6 orders were recorded in Poyang Lake of Jiangxi Province,using line transects,point counts and existing literatures.This paper mainly analyzed the distribution and survival status of rare waterbirds in Poyang Lake watershed.Four orders had more species,such as 8 species in Ciconiiformes,10 species in Anseriformes,9 species in Gruiformes,and 3 species in Charadriiformes.Winter visitors were the most abundant elements and had 21 species.Our investigation indicated the large number of species and individuals of rare waterbirds in Poyang Lake watershed.Most endangered waterbirds such as Siberian Crane(Grus leucogeranus),Oriental White Stork(Ciconia boyciana) mainly inhabitated in Poyang Lake.But the other endangered species such as Chinese Merganser(Mergus squamatus) selected Poyang Lake watershed as their wintering habitats.The following conservation measures for endangered waterbirds should be made: decreasing the effects of human activities on environments for waterbirds,establish small nature reserve,protect waterbirds in larger scale,conduct long-term monitoring on waterbirds in Poyang Lake and its watershed,improve the animal conservation awareness of local people.