| The Pere David's deer(Elaphurus davidianus)is a rare species peculiar to China and listed as the first grade of national key protected species.The Pere David's deer had been reintroduced in China in 1985,while it had been extinct in the wild.As a result of inbreeding,bottleneck effect and the gene drift,the genetic diversity of Pere David's deer is very low.We used instantaneous scan sampling method to observe wild-release population in the third zone and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer in the second zone of Jiangsu Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve,form April 2012 to March 2013.We recorded diurnal behavior time budget,diurnal rhythm,group size and group types of wild-release and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer population.The results are as follows:1.Feeding and Resting are the major diurnal behavior types of wild-release and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer,while moving,alert,and other behaviors are less.The Pere David's deer has two feeding peaks in the morning and evening,and resting time at noon.2.The result of Mann-Whitney U Test showed that,in yearly diurnal behavior time budget,there is a highly significant difference in feeding,moving,and other behaviors between wild-release and semi free-ranging Pare David's deer(P<0.01),while no significant difference in resting and alert(P>0.05).The result of Kruskal-Wallis H Test showed that,there is a significant difference in feeding,moving,resting and alert behavior in different seasons(P<0.05)both in wild-release and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer population.The external factors,such as weather conditions and food resources are the main factors that influence the diurnal behavior time budget of wild-release and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer.3.In the wild-release population,the result of Mann-Whitney U Test showed that there is a highly significant difference in feeding and moving time budget between different genders(P<0.01),while no significant difference in resting,alert,and other behaviors between different genders(P>0.05).Also,there is a highly significant difference in feeding and moving(P<0.01),a significant difference in resting(P<0.05),no significant difference in alert and other behaviors(P>0.05)between the different ages.In the semi free-ranging population,there is no difference in yearly diurnal behavior time budget between different genders(P>0.05),while there is a highly significant difference in moving and other behavior time budget(P<0.01),a significant difference in feeding time budget(P<0.05),and no difference between in resting and alert time budget(P>0.05)between different ages.Some internal factors,such as age,gender and reproductive stages are the main influence factors that affect the diurnal behavior time budget of wild-release and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer.4.Diurnal rhythm of wild-release and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer population is not completely consistent.Supplementary feeding by humun has a significant impact to the feeding behavior of semi free-ranging Pere David's deer.Daylength and seasonal changes also influence diurnal rhythm of Pere David's deer.5.Five group types were observed in wild-release and semi free-ranging Pere David's deer population,that is,mother fawn grouping,mixed grouping,male grouping,female grouping and single grouping.The group size of mixed grouping and male grouping has a highly significant difference in wild-release Pere David's deer population in different seasons(P<0.01),while with no significant difference for the female grouping(P>0.05).The group size of mixed grouping and male grouping also have a highly significant difference in semi free-ranging Pere David's deer population(P<0.01),while there is no significant difference for the female grouping both in spring and autumn(P<0.05).The behavior budget difference between males and females may be the main reason of sexual segregation of Dafeng Pere David's deer,and our research supports that activity budget hypothesis for sexual segregation.6.Wild-release Pere David's deer population in Dafeng usually gathers a large group in summer,then makes up the breeding groups,and form small groups in winter.But in semi free-ranging population,the deer usually gathers a large group in winter.The supplementary feeding for semi free-ranging Pere David's deer population in winter is the result of the difference of group types between wild-release and semi free-ranging population.The result of Mann-Whitney U Test showed that,there is a highly significant difference in group size between wild-release and Semi free-ranging population(P<0.01),and the average of group size of semi free-ranging population is larger than the wild-release population.The most common group size is from 11 to 50,which may be the optimal group size of Pere David's deer population in Dafeng.There is a highly significant difference in group size between wild-release and Semi free-ranging Pere David's deer population in different seasons(P<0.01).7.There is a highly significant difference in diurnal behavior time budget between the different group size and different group types both in wild-release and Semi free-ranging population in Dafeng(P<0.01).The group size and group types can affect the diurnal behavior time budge of Pere David's deer. |
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