Ungulates Survey In Hunchun Nature Reserve, China, In The Winters Of 2003/5

Field study was conducted in two consecutive winters of 2003/4 and 2004/5 to study the population densities and habitat use of the ungulates, including roe deer, red deer sika deer and wild boar, which is the main prey population of the Amur tiger and Far east leopard, in Hunchun Nature Reserve, Northeast China. The major results are summarized as follows:Red deer was mainly lived in mixed conifer-deciduous forests. The density of population was dramatically increased from 0.58 in 2003 to 1.91 deer/ km~2 in 2004. The densities of the sika deer were 0.08 deer/ km~2 in mixed conifer-deciduous forests and 0.15 in oak-birch deciduous forests in 2003. Then they came up to 0.15 and 0.39, respectively. Roe deer had the highest density in mixed conifer/deciduous forests in 2003/4 among these four ungulates, which was 1.27 deer/ km~2. But it was dropped to only 0.15 in 2004/5. At the same time, in oak/birch deciduous forests, it slowly grew from 0.04 to 0.15 deer/ km~2. It was the lowest percentage of encountering that wild boar, which densities were 0.03 and 0.04 boar/ km~2 in 2003 , then 0.01 and 0.02 boar/ km in 2004/5 winter in two type forests.Compared the plots which was separated into two groups by absence and presence of different species traces observed in two winters, snow depth had a consistently effect on the distribution of roe deer, red deer and sika deer (P<0.01). At the same time, the roe deer and the red deer were distributed differently in height (P<0.01). The roe deer lived much lower than that of the red deer. Red deer and wild boar seemed need much more closed habitat (P<0.05). Human activities, such as logging and traffic, mainly influenced the distribution of roe deer and wild boar...