Sasha Pekarsky

I am a PhD student in the Movement Ecology Lab. My study is focused on the decision-making processes shaping the local and global movement patterns of a long-distance social migrant, the Eurasian Crane (Grus grus). The cranes are highly social long-distance migratory birds exhibiting extended parental care, gregarious behavior and frequent use of densely cultivated areas at wintering and stopover sites. My aim is to understand the processes shaping migration progress pattern of an individual bird, in relation to age and environmental conditions it encountered en route. I am also using an individual-based approach in order to understand how food availability as well as timing and intensity of intentional disturbance effect the habitat use of the migratory birds at an intensively managed, major wintering and stopover site in Israel. Additionally, I am working on the influence of this migration bottleneck on the potential spread of infectious zoonotic diseases.