Study On Food-habits Analysis Of Argali(Ovis Ammon Darwini)in The Middle Of Inner Mongolia

From 2012 to September,2016,a field survey work is conducted by our team in Erennaoer,Sonid Right Banner of Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.The Gobi subspecies of argali(Ovis ammon darwini)distributes there and the stool samples and the plants samples grown in the habitat are taken back to the laboratory for microscopic examination,recording the data in Excel and analysis by SPSS18.0.At the same time,9 kinds ecological factors are tested in the argali foraging sites in 6 different kinds of habitat types,30 quadrats in total.Using fecal microscopic analysis method and field observations,analyzing and comparing the food composition and seasonal variation,the results indicate that there are 33 genera and 39 species from 20 families acquired in the habitat and the argali consumes 25 genera and 30 species from 16 families in four seasons.Among the plants it takes in spring,the Compositae plants take the largest proportion than other families,occupying 13.3% and the Liliaceae takes 11.8% in the second place.The Leguminosae takes 10.2% and the Caryophyllaceae plants shares 10% of them.The Polygonaceae shares the proportion within 9.3% and the rest families possess 38.9% in total.The argali mainly takes Agropyron cristatum,Leymus chinensis,Caragana korshinskii,Cleistogenes squarrosa,Ceratoides latens,Messerschmidia sibirica L.,Lxeris polycephala,Achnatherum splendens,Ptilotricum canescens,Bassia dasyphylla.The argali prefers Gramineae and Chenopodiaceae plants in summer,each of them take the proportion as 32.3% and 18.1%.In turn the Compositae takes 12.6% and the Leguminosae takes 10.2% and the Boraginaceae shares 5.1%.The rest of the other families come up to 21.7%.The argali mainly takes Leymus chinensis,Ceratoides latens,Cleistogenes squarrosa,Caragana korshinskii,Agropyroncristatum,Ixeris polycephala,Messerschmidia sibirica L.,Bassia dasyphylla.,Achnatherum splendens,Artenisiadesertorum Chenopodiumacuminatum.The Gramineae shares the largest proportion of all the food the argali taken in autumn within 34.17%.The Compositae and Chenopodiaceae plants each family takes 13.99% and in turn is the Leguminosae within 9.40% and the Liliaceae takes 5.42%.The rest of the other families come up to 23.04% of autumn food composition.The argali mainly takes Cleistogenes squarrosa,Leymus chinensis,Agropyroncristatum,Caragana korshinskii,Ceratoides latens,Ixeris polycephala,Achnatherum splendens,Messerschmidia sibirica L.,Chenopodium acuminatum.,Bassia dasyphylla.,Artenisia desertorum,Allium mongolicum.The Gramineae shares the largest proportion of all the food the argali taken in winter within 41.06%.The Compositae takes 14.37% and in turn is the Leguminosae and Chenopodiaceae within 8.80% and the Liliaceae takes 7.04%.The rest of the other families come up to 19.94% of winter food composition.The argali mainly takes Cleistogenes squarrosa,Leymus chinensis,Agropyroncristatum,Achnatherum splendens,Lxeris polycephala,Caragana korshinskii,Messerschmidia sibirica L.,Bassia dasyphylla.,Allium mongolicum,Artenisia desertorum in winter.In all the plants the argali takes,the Gramineae is occupying the largest proportion within 34.05% and the Chenopodiaceae takes 15.09%.The Compositae and the Leguminosae each shares 13.17% and 9.90%.The rest of the other families come up to 27.79%.After analyzing the ecological factors,the result shows that the distance to water source make a difference to 6 kinds of habitat types(P<0.05).The altitude is significant differences to all the habitat types except the bed-sites and water source point(P<0.05).The vegetation coverage,the bare land proportion and the quantity of the plants has no significant difference to all the habitat types(P>0.05).There are significant difference between salt point and the other habitat types(P<0.05)on the height of vegetation.The correlation between the total number of plants fed in four months and the ecological factors was analyzed.The result shows the vegetation coverage has no significant correlation with monthly food quantity.However,the bare land proportion and the distance to water source has positive correlation with monthly food quantity.The correlation coefficients are 0.867 and 0.306 respectively.The altitude was negatively correlated with a correlation coefficient of-0.775.It can be seen that the proportion of bare land has greater impact on the monthly total food intake.Calculating the Shannon-Wiener diversity index(H'),the Pielou evenness index(J')and the food niche breadth index B on the argali fecal samples microscopic results.The results indicate that the composition diversity of argali and the two indexes vary from different months.The highest Shannon-Wiener index is 2.81 and the lowest is index is April and June with 2.59.The highest Pielou evenness index(J')is 0.93 in April and the minimum index is 0.85 in June.From the niche breadth and the diversity index it can be seen that May is significantly higher than other months.Separately the food niche breadth is analyzed and the result shows that the food is sufficient in May than other months.Due to the serious deterioration of the argali living environment,resulting in the argali diet selection cannot have more choices in the time but the space preferences have significant differences.