Studies On South China Tiger's Behaviors In Semi-wild Conditions And Its Potential Habitats In China

In this paper, we used All-Occurrence Sampling Method and Focal-Animal Sampling Method to study the ethogram, time budget and daily rhythm of South China Tiger at different age groups in Semi-wild Circumstances. Meanwhile, using Geographic Information System (GIS), we analyzed potential habitats left in tiger historical range in and around China based on the habitat suitability index.In behavioral study, we set up the world's first PAE Behavioral Code System for South China Tiger, with which we recorded 117 behaviors in Semi-wild conditions. The result showed under semi-wild circumstances, tigers can display much more new behaviors than in small fence, and this condition had positive effects on the recovery of some tiger's flexible behaviors.In time budget study, we found there were great differences between three age groups' daily time budget, especially on social behaviors and playing behaviors. Daily rhythm study showed that, different group in different time period of the day may have either positive relevance or negative relevance, but in general they were not in order. The adult group's behaviors were more stable and the stereotype behaviors took a very large amount. The juvenile and cub groups displayed their behaviors more elastically, which showed they were in the best periods for the development of their behaviors.Potential habitat analysis showed that, tiger potential habitat can be found but had greatly reduced in and around China, which still faces the threats of habitat fragmentation. We used landcover, irrigation, human population, terrain, least sefl-sustainable populaton, and found out there were 20 potential habitat groups in whole south China, which can be considered as the core areas for South China Tiger's recovery. However, most of these groups still met the drawback of too little protected areas. Setting up new reserves, building the ecological corridors, effective protection and the recovery of wild landcover and prey base would be the effective ways to promote the capacities of potential habitats.