Studies On The Food Plants, Food Preference And Foraging Strategy Of Released Przewalski Horse

This work aims to study released Przewalski horse as living in Kalamaili Nature Reserve(44°36'～ 46°00'E, 88°30'～90°03'N)of north Xinjiang. The food plants and its preference of Przewalski horse were studied during the different seasons from 2005 to 2006.The main methods are as follows,The field sample method is adopted to investigate relative aboundance of plants, food composition is determined by microhistological analysis from fecal samples, microscopic analysis is used to identify the food plants, the nutrient contents of main plant species grazed by Przewalski horse were measeured by feed proximate analysis,The correlation and principal component analyses is used to discuss the foraging strategy of released Przewalsi horse,meanwhile,Try to apply the food preference evaluation to analyze the correlative factor of food preference of Przewalski horse. The results are listed below.(1)Results from food plants investigation showed that 17 plant species are recorded in releasing site, food habits results showed that 9 plant species were grazed by Przewalski horse, which mainly included Stipa gobica,Ceratoides lateens,Ceratocarpus arenaria, Anabasis brevifolia,Artemisia spp. and Salsola collina. The bachelor group has relative wider food plant spectrum compared to the family group.(2)The results of nutrient contents showed that there was significant difference in water content of main plants during spring,summer and autumn, no significant difference in crude protein between spring and summer,there was significant difference between summer and autumn,no significant difference in crude fat during the three seasons, no significant difference in crude fibre between spring and summer,there was significant difference between summer and autumn,no significant difference during the three seasons,no significant difference during the three seasons.(3)Results from food preference index indicate that Przewalski horse has distinct food preference to certain extent,but the extent is not significant, the 7 factors were analyzed by the correlation and principal component method between food preference and nutrient contents of main foods for Przewalski horse,The results of 7 factors correlation analysis showed that food preference was no significant correlation with nutrient contents of main food. The principal component analysis showed that the relative aboundance,crude fibre and water content of plants are the most important factors determining the feeding of Przewalski horse.(4)The results by food preference evaluation were similar to those by microhistological analysis. So it simplified the method of evaluating the food resources and its availabilities of Przewalski horse in larger regions.(5)After analysis of food spectrum, preference and nutrient, it's believed that there were desert and meadow, few plant species, low biomass in released region. Therefore Przewalski horse is euryphagous species.