An Evaluation Of Ecotourism Characteristics In Nature Reserves And Tourism Impacts On Breeding Behavior Of Common Coot (Fulica Atra)

It's important for the evaluation on the essential principles and characteristics of ecotourism in nature reserves,and identifying the tourism impacts on the breeding behavior of common coots to the sustainable ecotourism,improvement of ecotourism planning and management,effective conservation of species and biodiversity,and the balance between tourism and conservation of nature reserves.10 essential characteristics indexes were identified based on ecotourism definition and principles in an evaluation framework of Nature Reserves:nature-based tourism,motivation of appreciation and learning,environmental and soci-cultural impacts,environmental attitudes of tourists,conservation attitudes of community,conservation benefit from ecotorism,community benefit ecotourism,community participation,understand and respect to local culture tourists. Every index was 3 stores,and 3 levels were identified according to totoal stores.The tourists,community,nature and conservation character of ecotourism were surveyed and analyzed in Zhalong Nature Reserve by the methods of questionnaires,farmers,managers and staff interview,and indirect observation and the level of Zhalong ecotourism was evaluated. The main motivation of tourists is scenery viewing and cranes watching,and the motivation for learning about wetland is 18.1%of total tourists.The score of 8 NEP questions is 30.2 and environmental attitude is medium.There are some differences between May and July surveys, more tourists in July were from other province,arranging by travel agency,with bigger group, and tourists in May had less learning motivation and more requirements to accommodation,so these two parts tourists all had some characteristics of mass tourism.The Zhalong village got 600 000～700 000 RMB from ecotourism in 2006,and most villagers thought Zhalong had convenient traffic,advantages for reed sale and were more well-known after ecotourism.Most villagers had good awareness for the cranes conservation.There are abundant natural landscapes in Zhalong wetland,but the activities of watching flying captive-breeding cranes decreased the nature level to some extent.Zhalong Reserves put 23.3%of total ecotourism benefits to cranes conservation,breeding and public education.There were little disturbance from photographers and general tourists to captive breeding cranes.The total score of 10 characteristics of Nature Reserves ecotourism is 21 stores,which can be classified to levelⅡ,part ecotourism.Some suggests such as providing more nature experience,environmental education,forming community participation to ecotourism, immerging more local culture were proposed to improving the ecotourism management.The breeding ecology and the impacts of tourism on common coot(Fulica atra) were investigated in Anbang River Nature Reserve.The results indicated that most nests were built among plants patch near open water.The water depth of most nests is 20～80cm,distance to open water is 0～5m,distance between nests is 30m～50m,the territory area is 3000～5000m2.The clutch size is 6-13,incubation date is 23 days and incubation rate is 91.38%.The nesting site in areas with tourism activities is nearer to disturbance source,but the distance to open water,distance between nests,territory area have no significant difference with compare area.The laying date,brooding date and grouping date are all later than compare area.The behavior time budget and activity rhythm of common coots in pre-laying and incubation period were studied in the tourism activities area and compare area of Anbang River wetland.Females spent more time than males feeding during pre-laying,and males spent slightly more time at defensive activities than females.Avoiding behavior were significant different between tourism area and compare area.In incubation period coot females spent more time on sitting nest,and females of tourism spent less time on incubating and more locomotion than compare area,male spent less time on maintenance than compare area.Coots were more easily to be disturbance in incubation than pre-laying period.The tourism impacts on activity rhythm of coot were focused on continuous sitting time and the fragmental feeding time.The behavior time budget and activity rhythm of adults and juvenile common coots in intensive tourism area,mild tourism area and compare area in Anbang River wetland.There are significant differences in feeding,locomotion,maintenance and avoiding behavior of the adults among three areas.Juveniles of intensive tourism area,mild tourism area spent less time on feeding,locomotion,maintenance and more time on avoiding than compare area.The behavioral differences between intensive area and compare area were more than that between mild tourism area and compare area.By same degree of disturbance,adults disappeared from open water more frequently than juveniles,and were more sensitive to disturbance than juveniles.