conducted using the GIS overlay and buffering 
functions. Within the wetlands the distribution 
was about 88%, and for the regions outside the 
wetlands the distribution was about 12%. About 
90% of the nesting areas are distributed within 
250m of the river stream. 
iii) Unfavorable Conditions 
Conditions considered unfavorable to the nesting 
Japanese Crane are roads, residential areas, and 
changes in land use. The distance from these 
various unfavorable conditions was calculated. 
The sources of data were, for the road data 
1/25,000 scale data; for the data on residential 
areas, building land data from numerical land 
information; and for the land usage data, 
buffered secondary LANDSAT MSS data was 
used. In the case of roads, close to 80% of the 
nesting areas were over 500m away, and about 
9096 were more than Ikm from residential areas. 
iv) Conditions for the Biotope 
From the above topographical conditions, 
favorable as well as unfavorable, that were 
obtained from GIS analysis, as favorable 
conditions for nesting, the Japanese Crane is 
choosing areas that are: 
a. Level and at a height of less than 20m. 
b. At a distance of 500m from roads. 
c. More than Ikm away from residential areas. 
d. Within 250m of the nearest river system. 
2. The Japanese Crane's Occupancy of the 
Habitat 
Next, based on the distribution of nesting areas, 
an analysis was made of the crane's occupancy 
of its habitat. By using the buffering function on 
the nesting areas and drawing circles on the CRT 
then increasing their radii until the circles 
overlapped, a representation of the nesting space 
82 
distribution was achieved. In Figure 2 is shown 
the situation of circle overlap and the shortest 
radius to overlap was 660m. It can be seen that 
almost all of the circlesoverlapataradiusofl.5km. 
In other words, for the biotope, the nesting area 
must be within 250m of the nearest river stream, 
occupy a region with a radius of 1.5km, and 
apparently the territory of the Japanese Crane 
during the nesting season is within a radius of 
about 1.5km. 
3. Potential Nesting Areas 
From the biotope determined from the 
distribution of nesting areas in the Kushiro 
Wetlands, a GIS analysis was carried out to find 
possible nesting sites. The Figure 3 shows the 
results of a search for level areas at an elevation 
of less than 20m, at a suitable distance from 
roads and residential areas, within 250m of the 
nearest river stream and more than 1.5km from 
existing nesting sites. 
6. CONCLUSIONS 
Determination of the biotope and an analysis 
using the principles of landscape ecology were 
carried out using GIS. From land cover 
information obtained by secondary satellite 
images for the Kushiro Wetlands National Park, 
changes in land cover were observed in regions 
where development regulations are lax. 
From the biotope determined from the nesting 
area distribution of the Japanese Crane, nests are 
away from roads or residential areas and within 
250m of the nearest river stream that provides 
their source of food. Furthermore, the territorial 
requirement for the nesting crane was calculated 
to be 1.5km, and the remaining potential nesting 
region was 
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