Time Budget And Activity Rhythm Of Captive Chinese Monal Lophophorus Lhuysii

During August 2016 to August 2017,a full range of electronic monitoring and instantaneous scanning methods were applied to record the all-day behavior type and behavior location(indoor or outdoor)of 9 Chinese monals(1 female died on March10,2017)raised in the Baoxing National Nature Reserves.Behaviors were recorded every day during 6:30 to 19:30,including weather and outdoor temperatures.A total of 8883 times from 329 days were effectively recorded.Statistical analysis of daily rhythm and time distribution as well as the differences between male and female were performed.At the same time,the correlation between average outdoor temperature,weather conditions and the average temperature of the Chinese monals were also analyzed by SPSS 16.0 software.The results are shown as follow:Except in breeding season,similar results of activity rhythm were observed in these Chinese monals.The walking and eating behaviors occurred more frequent in the morning and in the evening.Besides their own endogenous rhythm,artificial feeding was likely one of the most related factors.Resting behaviors showed negative relationships with walking and eating behaviors,and it was affected by weather condition and temperature.Of the breeding related behaviors in breeding season,eating behaviors had no significant regulation,while the time of walking behavior became longer and the resting time got shorter.Although multiple behaviors of Chinese monals were rhythmic and periodic,differences were still observed in different genders and seasons.Daylight hours is different between non-breeding and breeding seasons,due to the influence of breeding activities,time distribution of breeding season is dominated by breeding behaviors.Eating behaviors were significantly less than other seasons,while walking behaviors occurred more often than other seasons.Because the females no longer hatch naturally under the artificial feeding conditions,they rarely receive natural mating.No significant difference was detected in various behaviors of breeding time of males,which was different from the conclusions of many other studies,this is one of the most difficulties in the breeding the Chinese monals.There were also significant differences between males and females in different non-breeding seasons.Overall,because there is no feeding on competitive pressures and threats without natural enemies of the captive Chinese monals,resting behavior had become the most important behavior in the non-breeding seasons,and the ratio of eating and walking was lower than wild.The effect of weather conditions on outdoor activity time of the captive Chinese monals was slightly different in different seasons and genders.In the spring?summer?fall those three seasons,both males and females were positively related to weather conditions,that is,more sunny weather and longer outdoor activities.These observations were different from wild Chinese monals,because there is no feeding on competitive pressures and threats without natural enemies of the captive Chinese monals.They have tended to do more activities in the better weather.These findings showed that weather conditions have certain influence on the activities of the Chinese monals.The effect of temperature on the outdoor activity time of the captive Chinese monals can also be slightly different in different seasons.only in spring,the higher temperature and longer outdoor activities.And in the fall,only the male showed the higher temperature and longer outdoor activities.In other seasons,the relationship is not significantly between the season and temperature.That means the temperature is an influencing factor,but not the only one.In addition,this study found that on captive condition,outdoor activity time of male monals is longer than females in each season.On the other hand,by the influence of the breeding activities,outdoor activities occurred more often in spring and then followed by summer and autumn.In winter,for the preparation of breeding,the outdoor activity time increased compared with autumn.In the present study,we found that both the daily rhythm and the time distribution of the captive Chinese monals have certain regularities and periodicities,and they are mainly influenced by reproductive factors,environmental factors,human factors,and endogenous intrinsic factors.Artificial environment and natural factors have great influences on captive Chinese monals.Artificial environment plays a crucial role in the breeding and survival of captive Chinese monals.