Research On The Vigilance Pattern And Flight Behaviors Of Chinese Water Deer,Hydropotes Inermis

To evaluate the flight behaviors of Chinese water deer under human disturbance and to set guidelines for the reintroduction of Chinese water deer after released to Shanghai suburbs, from September,2010to August,2011, we tested the vigilance pattern of the semi-captive Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis) with human simulated predator in Songjing, Shanghai, and results suggest that Chinese water deer’s vigilance pattern includes alerting, staring and walking away or running away, and sometimes they bark or stretch their necks while staring. Barking in Chinese water deer mainly functions as an anti-predator behavior against predators instead of sending signals to other deer. Stretching may function as a trial to tell the level of threats from an predator or function as an ritualized behavior which indicates the health status of the water deer. We didn’t observe protest behavior in Chinese water deer. We used flight initiation distance (FID) as a metric to compare the vigilance level of water deer populations of different captive status, including captive water deer in Huaxia, semi-captive water deer in Songjiang, and wild water deer in Yancheng Natural Reserve, and results suggest that the vigilance level differs significantly, which means captive water deer decrease their vigilance level compared to their wild counterparts, however human raised water deer could be trained to increased vigilance level. Experiences with human, size of space, population density and the existence of fences may contribute to the difference of FID.We also tested predictions based on optimal escape theory using flight initiation distance (FID) as a metric. Escape by Chinese water deer confirms our predictions. Results show that deer fled at greater distances in open areas than in forests (P=0.000**), indicating that refuge to retreat plays an important role in deer’s risk assessment. But they were not likely affected by directness of approach (P=0.118), suggesting that human is interpreted as a non-lethal predator. FID changed with time of day and time of year, indicating that reproductive status and food resource abundance in combination influence flight behaviors made by the Chinese water deer. FID of newborns between1week and8weeks was greater than that of newborns under1week (P=0.002**), but was similar to water deer over8 weeks (P=0.862), suggesting that deer develop anti-predator strategies in early days. Deer fled at greater distances when they were standing than that when they were lying (P=0.000**), and we suggest that gesture could be an activity intensity index.