Winter Habitat Evaluation For The Wolverine (Gulo Gulo) In The Great Khingan Mountains Area

The wolverine(Gulo gulo) has been listed in the directory of the first class protection animal in China.Wolverine was a typical representative species of conifer stands in boreal area, and distributed throughout the northern hemisphere within the boreal zones of circumpolar. The distribution area of wolverine was small,and the wild wolverine population is less than 200 which starves for conservation.Measurements should be focused on study and conservation on the habitat of wolverine and their biological habits.This dissertation has carried out assessment on wolverine habitat in Zhuangzhi Forest Farm based on GIS technology.This research has taken the Great Khingan Mountains area Zhuangzhi Forest Farm as study area,where wolverine distributes.According to the research of former scholars and field sampling survey result,making quantitatively analysis to wolverine's habitat selection,the factors which influence wolverine habitat selection are identified.Digital elevation model(DEM) is established by using topographic maps on the scale of 1:50000.The wolverine habitat is evaluated,and the protecting approaches and strategies of wolverine are also discussed.The principal component analysis of 421 sample sites indicated that the cumulative contribution of the first 6 principal components reached to 85.0%,and these factors could represent the main information of 11 factors.The results show that Wolverine prefer to use habitat on sharp east and north slopes with mixed broadleaf-conifer forest,moderate canopy, high arbor quantity,deep snow depth,and far away from railway,road and residential area.The wolverine's habitat database which including elevation,slope,waterhead,vegetation and human activities was built by ArcGIS9.2 to evaluate the habitat suitability for Wolverine.It is found that,with no human activities being considered,239 km~2(22.4%) of the total area is suitable for Wolverine to live,while unsuitable area is 494 km~2(37.8%).However,with human activities being considered,the most suitable area decreased by 10.9%,the moderately suitable area decreased by 15.2%,the marginally suitable area decreased by 22.3%,and the unsuitable area increased by 31.4%.It showed that residential area and railway has big influence on the habitat of the Wolverine.