Habitat destruction and reduced food stocks derive from hydroelectric projects and commercial fishing, toxins from boating, extensive dredging, municipal sewage and industrial waste. High concentrations of chemicals and heavy metals have been found in Beluga carcasses since 1982. Hunting was banned in 1979 but pollution remains a grave threat despite a clean-up launched in 1988. St Lawrence Beluga numbers may be too low to recover. Its two spring breeding areas are in the marsh-like terrain of Northern Siberia.
Cranes migrate in winter to freshwater wetlands and shallow ponds.
Both parents incubate two eggs but usually only one chick reaches adulthood. Three known flocks. The hunting of cranes on their migratory route in Iran and Afghanistan, and wetland destruction. Eggs laid in captivity hatched in electric incubators at nesting grounds near the Ob River. Chicks are reared by caregivers disguised with hand-puppets and crane costumes.