Habitat Assessment Of Sika Deer (Cervus Nippon) In The Taohongling National Nature Reserve, Jiangxi Province, China

The South China subspecies of sika deer (Cervus nippon) has been listed as anendangered species in the IUCN Red Data List, and is also assigned to ProtectionClass I in the List of Wildlife under Special State Protection as designated by theChinese State Council. In recent years, sika deer have formed several relativelyisolated populations and are distributed in parts of Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhuiprovinces. Taohongling National Nature Reserve is located in Pengze County, JiangxiProvince of China, which has been designated for the protection of wild southern sikadeer. The reserve is12500hm2in area, of which the Core Protected Zone is2670hm2, the Buffer Zone is1830hm2and the Experimental Zone is8000hm2. In theExperimental Zone, there is a considerable area of agricultural land with a highhuman population density. Highways surround the eastern, northern, and westernboundaries of the nature reserve, while the southern border of the reserve is markedby valleys and creeks. The last estimated population of sika deer in the nature reservewas365, which was thought to be the largest population of this sika deer subspecies.However, after strict protection for30years, the vegetation in the nature reserve haschanged into evergreen broadleaf forests which is the local climax vegetation.Meanwhile, human activities have led to further habitat fragmentation and habitat loss.Therefore, it is necessary to carry out further studies on the population of sika deer inTaolongling National Nature Reserve for proper population conservation.Based on the data on habitat used by sika deer in the Taohongling NationalNature Reserve between March2011and March2013, we used the habitatevaluation model and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to assess thesuitability of the habitat for sika deer. Vegetation type, slope, aspect, elevation andhuman activities were selected as factors for habitat suitability assessment. The resultsshowed that forests, including deciduous forests, coniferous forests, mixedbroadleaf-coniferous forests, broad-leaved evergreen forests and bush fallow were the dominant land cover in the Taohongling area. The area of forest was9488.15hm2,accounting for75.90%of the total area. In the absence of human disturbance, theareas of suitable, marginally suitable, rarely suitable and unsuitable habitat were2233.99hm2,2980.24hm2,4563.93hm2and2221.81hm2, respectively, accountingfor18.61%,24.83%,38.03%and18.52%of the total area. In the presence of humanactivity, suitable, marginally suitable, rarely suitable and unsuitable habitat was1224.04hm2,2164.70hm2,3988.21hm2and4623.05hm2, respectively, representing10.20%,18.04%,33.24%and38.53%of the total area. Compared with potentialhabitat, the actual habitat had been greatly changed, the areas of suitable, marginallysuitable and rarely suitable decreased8.41%,6.79%and4.79%, but the unsuitablehabitat increased20.01%. Because residential areas, main roads, farming activity andtimber harvesting have a strong impact on the habitat of sika deer, suitable andmarginally suitable habitats have been intensively lost and isolated with the landscapefragmentation index increasing from0.4345to0.5898. Using the potential availablehabitat area, the carrying capacity of sika deer is calculated as568±160individuals,but using the actual available habitat area, the carrying capacity is only368±105.Habitat loss and fragmentation have been the main limiting factors for populationrecovery of sika deer in the Taohongling National Nature Reserve. We suggest that itis very important to take reasonable measures to manage forest harvesting, eliminatepoaching, control the number of wild boar, and to establish habitat corridors.