The Courtship Behavior Of Captive Black Stork(Ciconia Nigra)

Black stork(Ciconia nigra)belongs to the Ciconiiformes Ciconiidae Ciconia,grade I national key protect bird.The main ex-situ conservation of black stork is zoo's conservation,which aims to increase the population of black stork,and the courtship becomes the key factor.However,recent researches mostly emphasis the description of courtship behaviour of black stork,ignoring the specific reports.Therefore,this study do reasearches on the behaviour of courtship phase,includes selecting courtship behaviour,making courtship behaviour ethogram,analysing of courtship notes and songs,which can provide a basis for helping breeding of captive black stork in zoos.The behaviours of five pairs captive black stork were monitored and recorded by infrared monitoring equipment in the Baoding zoo from January to April of 2015.The video datas of behaviour of five pairs black stork is obtained by all occurrence methods,and the courtship behaviour from the video datas were analyzed and screened out through observing it second by second.Then the courtship behaviour were coded into PAE courtship behaviour ethogram.The circadian rhythm and circatrigintan rhythm of courtship behaviour were also counted and analyzed.The process of courtship can be divided into two phase,one is early mating phase,the other is late mating phase.The song courtship behaviours of two phase were compared.Then,the courtship songs were dealed and translated,the parament of courtship songs were measured and couted,as well as the notes of song.The parament of courtship songs and notes were compared in different phase and different black stork.The results show:(1)The courtship behaviour of male include 10 postures,42 actions,11 behaviours,and the PAE action coding system was obtained which contains above posture code,action code and environment code.According to the form of courtship behaviour,which are divided into song courtship behavior and action courtship behaviours.Among these behaviours,the eight behaviours are new records of courtship behaviour(2)The song courtship behaviour of captive black stork mainly occurre in daytime,seldom occurred in night.The song courtship behaviour largely occurre in morning,while fewer occurre in afternoon.The circadian rhythm of song courtship behaviour of captive black stork was a triple peak pattern.(3)The note of song courtship behaviour of captive black stork is divided into two kinds.The song can divide into 3 kinds,one is the anterior protuberance type,other is the middle protuberance type,another is the tail protuberance type.(4)The rate and bandwith of courtship song are different in different black stork.The comparison between duet courtship song and solo courtship song is significant different in rate.The comparison between duet courtship song and solo courtship song is not significant different in bandwith.The same kind courtship song is compared in different channel,the result show that the rate and bandwith is significant different.Every black stork has the peculiar song character in rate and bandwith.(5)The rate and bandwith of duet courtship song is influenced by the mating behaviour In mating later period,the rate of duet courtship song bacame wider,and the bandwith became narrower.The bandwith of solo courtship song is influenced by the mating behaviour,but the rate is't influenced by the mating behaviour.The rate and bandwidth of captive black stork' s courtship song showed the significant negative correlation,the wider of the rate,the slower of the frequence.The PAE action coding system describe the courtship behaviours in many factors which included posture,action,environment and gender.The courtship behaviours is easy to understand by the PAE action coding system.The characteristic of courtship behavior and song may be influenced by the environmental and genetic facors.