Studies On The Behaviors Of The Crested Ibis (Nipponia Nippon) In Non-breeding Season And The Acclimation Training Guideline

An observation on the behavior of wild Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) population was conducted using focal sampling and ad libitum sampling methods from December to January,2009 and from June to January,2011. Scan sampling and focal sampling methods were also employed to observe the behavior of 6 captive populations in Yangxian Crested Ibis Ecological Garden, Huayang Acclimation Training Base, Shanxi Wildlife Breeding Center and Beijing Zoo respectively. The results are as follows,The ethogram of Crested Ibis in non-breeding season were established. Totally 85 actions in 16 categories were defined and described including 79 normal actions in 13 categories and 6 abnormal actions in 3 categories. No abnormal actions were observed both in wild and acclimation training populations.PEA Action Coding System of Crested Ibis were established consist of 8 Posture code (P),71 Action code (A) and 12 Environment (E).327 total behavior patterns were described in which 215 were observed both in wild population and captive population.According to the similarity test on the behavior abundance, six captive populations were divided into two types which were acclimation training population and standard-feeding population.The behavior patterns causing by human interference and environmental condition accounted for 34.3% of the total. Correlation Analysis revealed that activity space and environmental abundance contributed to the behavioral abundance while high population density decreased the expression of the behavior. The tourist disturbance had no obvious effect on the behavioral abundance. The study on time budget of behavior showed that there was significant difference (P<0.05) of behavior including mobility, foraging and vigilance behaviors existing in each population in summer, autumn and winter.The captive population with high behavioral abundance spent more time in foraging. Shannon-Wiener index analysis revealed that the actual behavior diversity (H) analysis results consistent with the abundance and time distribution analysis results. Corrective actions diversity (r-variable) analysis showed the highest corrective actions in Beijing zoo.The monitoring work was done from June 2010 to January 2011 in Huayang Acclimation Training Base. The observation results showed that at least one months of wild training needed before the expression of the normal behavior.The foraging condition and feeding style had an effect on the foraging behavior and environment shelter on the frighten-flying time. Lacking of perch in Huayang cage caused abnormal behavior of roosting on the ground and the behavior was corrected by increasing the perch and after the snowfall and ice frozen.According to the results of Crested Ibis behavior research since 2009 and learned from 30 years of successful management experience of Crested Ibis protection effort, the acclimation training guideline for the artificial breeding population was established, which included the individual choice, building the released population, the design and preparation of training facilities, training methods and etc, Meantime, putting forward technological procedures and evaluation standards and providing feasible and effective technical regulations and related parameters standards.