Individual (non-social) behavioral acts of hooded cranes Grus monacha wintering in Izumi, Japan

The purpose of this paper is to make a fundamental tool (an ethogram) to help understand the life of hooded cranes Grus monacha and also the phylogenetic relationships among congeneric crane species from the ethological viewpoint. Individual behavioral acts were enumerated with quantitative attributes depending on the analysis of video images recorded in Izumi, wintering grounds of the species in Japan, during 1995-1999. Several new ethons and activities of individual behavior are cited here, such as Soak, Wing-droop and Bill-turn of Care of the body surface, Ruffle-bow-up, High-step-stretch and Foot-dangle of Comfort movements, Walk-back, Trot, three modes of Alight and Dangle-leg-glide of Locomotory, and Nibble-search and Carry of Foraging. These ethons have so far rarely been mentioned in inventories of individual behavior on cranes. It is necessary to obtain not just qualitative but quantitative data of individual acts of other cranes for the comparison of such closely related species as Eugrus group members.