Every crane is a stack of tissues that must agree under season, prey and human pressure.
Meters below repeat the six atlas scores as gauges; they are relative marks, not laboratory certificates.
Systems
Support and integument
A long trachea coiled in the sternum gives the unison call its carry. The bill probes wetlands; the inner wing is built for a slow display stroke.
Feeding apparatus
Omnivory in marshes -- plants, invertebrates, small vertebrates. Winter grain at Kushiro and Izumi is a human subsidy on that diet. The feeding kit sets the ecological-role score relative to the other 23 types.
Respiration and circulation
Gas exchange and blood flow are tuned to the crane energy budget -- dive, hover, sprint or bulk browse -- not to a generic vertebrate template.
Senses and neural control
Visual pair displays and far-carrying calls structure territories. Wetland depth and ice decide winter survival more than acuity.
Reproduction and ontogeny
Replacement rate is the hidden resilience number. A few winter basins and nesting marshes hold the Endangered type. Influenza and rice-paddy conversion are tighter than any sprint.
Thermoregulation and salt/water
Climate and osmoregulation bound where a crane can close its daily budget. Field sites in the English-speaking world still measure that envelope first.
Relative meters
Hotspots
Primary weapon or tool
The bill, teeth, trunk, pouch or talon that field guides name first -- and that trade or conflict usually targets.
Energy store
Fat, cache, crop or bamboo hours that decide whether a season closes.
Natal or breeding site
A redd, eyrie, den, anemone or ice lair -- often a single-point risk (Izumi, Natron, Gir).
Sensory organ
Visual pair displays and far-carrying calls structure territories. Wetland depth and ice decide winter survival more than acuity.
Human interface
Hunt, tourism, film or quota -- the surface where crane biology meets English-language law.
Tissues & materials
Keratin and integument
Feathers, fur, baleen or skin plates -- tissues, not metals. Moult and wear are the maintenance cycle.
Bone and cartilage
Load paths for stoop, lunge, knuckle-walk or hover. Marrow and pneumatic bone differ by family.
Muscle and tendon
The expensive tissue that speed and intelligence scores only hint at.
Fat, oil and glycogen
Stores that migration, fast and lactation spend. A market for those stores (oil, ivory, fin) is a historical threat.
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