Food-habits Of Asiatic Wild Ass In Inner Mongolia

From July, 2005 to June 2006, the author conducted field investigationson the Asiatic wild ass distributed in Chagan hada Village, DarhanMuminggan Joint Banner, in the city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia, what'smore, the author also took the Asiatic wild ass stool samples and habitatwithin the plant samples back to the laboratory for analysis.Using fecal microscopic analysis method and field observations, theauthor analyzes the food composition and seasonal variation of Asiatic wildass, and finally discovers that the Asiatic wild ass take a total of 15 familiesand 31 species of plants, including Gramineae plants (57.67%),Chenopodiaceae plants (11.83%), Tamaricaceae plants (9.59%), and legumes(7.59%), all of which take a great share in the food composition for theAsiatic wild ass.Aciatic Aciatic wild ass food composition changes with the seasons:grazing most of plant species in winter, mainly including plants that belong toGramineae such as Stipa krylovii, Setaria viridis, Achnatherum splendens;Salsola passerine, that belong to Chenopodiaceae; Reaumuria soongoricathat belongs to Tamaricaceae, and Caragana stenophylla that belongs toLeguminosae. In the early winter, the bush food consumption of the Asiaticwild ass increases significantly, especially for Salsola passerine, thepercentage increase is more obvious. In spring, in addition to Gramineae plants, the consumption of the Chenopodiaceae and Tamaricaceae plants startsto decline; on the contrary, the consumption of the leguminous plants hasincreased. In summer, intake of herbs begins gradually increasing (with theshare of Gramineae plants as high as 72.33%). In autumn, the share ofGramineae plants decreases obviously while the proportion of Tamaricaceaeplants, legumes, and the Chenopodiaceae plants, is rising. After the nutrientdetermination of the eight major species of plants taken by Aciatic wild assduring winter and summer and after using an Independent-Sample T Text forthe winter and summer plant nutrients for different tests, the results show that:in winter and summer, there are very extreme differences (P＜0.01) in theplant moisture content, CP content, CF content, P content, GE value, and NFE.The content in winter is lower compared with that in summer. Further more,in winter and summer, there exists significant differences (0.01＜P＜0.05)inthe CA content, which is lower in winter compared with summer and there isno significant difference in the CFa content in winter and summer. The highnutritional quality of Salsola passerine, Caragana stenophylla, andReaumuria soongorica has contributed a lot to the Aciatic wild ass: Stipakrylovii, and Achnatherum splendens which take the largest amount in thefood composition of Asiatic wild ass has played the most important role in thenutrition supplement of the Asiatic wild ass, while in winter, the ratio ofEragroslis, Cleistogenes squarrosa and Setaria viridis in food composition is relatively low, and the CP and GE is also low, so their contribution to nutritionis still small.In the distribution region of the Asiatic wild ass, a total of 20 out of 45species of plants have been collected, and through field observations andanalysis of microscopic stool, Aciatic wild ass are found to take a total of 15plants Branch and 31 species. As a result, the Aciatic wild ass can be seenwith a wide feeding niche and they belong to EURYPHAGOUSanimals.Asiatic wild ass is a large ungulates non-ruminant animal with greaterbody weight energy consumption but in its distribution region, the vegetationis barren; the Biomass is lower, so in order to survive in such an environment,the Asiatic wild ass must eat a variety of plants, especially those with lowfiber content, CP but higher GE.There are significant differences among the most plants and the choice ofplants in the distribution region of the Asiatic wild ass. At the same time, thechoice of foods for the Asiatic wild ass is closely related with theenvironment plant abundance, height, hardness and plant nutrient content,almost from the human element and the impact of livestock.