Gary Krapu, PhD (Former Employee)

The Siberian crane (Grus leucogeranus) is the third rarest crane species in the world with a breeding range now centered on 3 core areas and a buffer zone in the arctic of northern Yakutia in northeastern Russia. During 16 July-2 August 2009, we undertook ground surveys within the Khroma River core breeding area, surrounding buffer zone, and lands lying to the west of the known rbeeding...

The Rainwater Basin in Nebraska has been a historic staging area for midcontinent greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons frontalis) since the 1950s and, in the mid-1990s, millions of midcontinent lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) expanded their spring migration route to include this region. In response to speculation that snow geese may be in direct competition...

A spring hunt was instituted in North America to reduce abundance of snow geese (Chen caerulescens) by increasing mortality of adults directly, yet disturbance from hunting activities can indirectly influence body condition and ultimately, reproductive success. We estimated effects of hunting disturbance by comparing body composition of snow geese and non-target species, greater white...

The Mid-continent Population (MCP) of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) is widely hunted in North America and is separated into the Gulf Coast Subpopulation and Western Subpopulation for management purposes. Effective harvest management of the MCP requires detailed knowledge of breeding distribution of subspecies and subpopulations, chronology of their use of fall staging areas and...

Waterfowl and other migratory birds commonly store nutrients at traditional staging areas during spring for later use during migration and reproduction. We investigated nutrient‐storage dynamics in the midcontinent population of greater white‐fronted geese (Anser albifrons; hereafter white‐fronted geese) at spring staging sites in the Rainwater Basin of Nebraska during February–April and...

Spring-migration ecology of staging Northern Pintails, Anas acuta, was investigated in south-central Nebraska, USA. Habitat associations, local movements, settling patterns, arrival dates, residency times and survival were estimated from 71 radiomarked pintails during spring 2001, 2003 and 2004, and diet determined from 130 females collected during spring 1998 and 1999. Seventy-two...