Diet Analyses Of Red-crowned Crane (Grus Japonensis) During Breeding Season In Qixinghe Nation Nature Reserve, Heilongjiang Province

The diet characters of Red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) during breeding season in Qixinghe nature reserve was analyzed in this thesis. The feces samples of the crane were collected in the reserve from April to May in2011. The feeding plant species in feces were examined by the method of direct observation and microscopic analyses. And the diet component and nutrition content of the main feeding plants during courtship and incubation periods were also analyzed by the method of Van Soest, residual method and micro kjeldahl method. We also compared the difference of diet component and nutrition content between those periods. The results showed that the diet component of the crane in courtship period included22species in7Family, there were28species in15Family during incubation periods. The total feeding plant species in the2periods were36species in16Family. Many of species in Gramineae and Cyperaceae were the main food for the crane during breeding season in the reserve. During the courtship period, the crane preferred to feed Zea mays, Phragmites australis, Sparganium stenophyllum, Suaeda glauca, Carex tristachya, accounting for49.57%,10.54%,8.33%,7.54%,7.03%of the total food respectively. All the species mainly belonged to4Family, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Polygonaceae and Scirpus. Several species in Gramineae were the main food for the crane which was the largest proportion, about69.4%. And the other accounted25.8%.The situation in the incubation period is almost similar. During this period, the crane preferred to feed Zea mays, Carex meyerina, Phragmites australis, Carex tristachya, uaeda glauca, accounting for16.2%,14.85%,10,5%,8.22%,8.78%of the total food respectively. All the species mainly belonged to4Family, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Polygonaceae and Leguminosae. The respective proportion of species in Gramineae, Cyperaceae and Polygonaceae were43.83%,24.9%,9.37%. During the two periods, some of plant species were all founded in the feces samples, such as Zea mays, Phragmites australis, Poa sinattenuata, Balanophora japonica, Bothriochloa ischcemum, Setaria viridis, Deyeuxia langsdorffii, Deyeuxia langsdorffii, Elymus dahuricus, Carex tristachya, Suaeda glauca, Sparganium stenophyllum, Lathyrus pratensis, Veronica javanica.The results of Person analyses showed that the proportion was significant positively related with the proportion of crude protein of plant, which was significant negatively related with that of crude fiber during courtship period. During the incubation period, the The proportion was significant positively related with the proportion of crude protein and crude hat of plant. We concluded that the diet components of the crane were different during those periods, but all kind of food were all significant related with the nutrition content of plant. Red-crowned Crane preferred the food which has high proportion of crude protein and low proportion of crude fiber.