Study On The Effect Of Livestock Grazing On Giant Pandas(Ailuropoda Melanoleuca)and Their Habitat In Wolong Nature Reserve

As a unique rare wild animal in China,giant panda(Ailuropoda melanoleuca)has received high attention both at home and abroad for its living and habitat conditions.However,in recent years,livestock grazing is becoming more common in giant panda habitat,which has attracted a lot of attention.This study took the world-renowned flagship reserve for giant pandas-Wolong National Nature Reserve-as a case study,to investigate the impact of livestock grazing on giant pandas and their habitats.In order to fully understand the impact of livestock grazing,this study carried out a long-term investigation and monitoring,then analyzed the long-term impact of livestock grazing on bamboo,as well as the behavioral response of different wildlife including giant pandas to grazing,and based on the research results,hopefully can put forward some scientific and practical recommendations on conservation management.In this study,data were collected from community entry questionnaire survey,fixed transects and plots sampling in the field and infrared camera monitoring.The aims were to reveal the effects of livestock grazing on giant pandas and their habitats from three aspects:the spatial distribution characteristics of livestock and giant pandas,the impact of livestock grazing on giant panda habitat and their sympatric animals,and the responses of giant panda and their sympatric animals to grazing.The results shown that:1)From 2003 to 2015,the overall trend in the total number of livestock in Wolong Nature Reserve was increasing.Compared to the number of livestock in 2003,the number of livestock increased by 43.37%in 2015.According to the survey data in 2016,the pastures'region was digitized using ArcGIS.The total area of livestock distribution area was about 467.21 km~2,and the area distributed in the protected area was 417.08km~2,accounting for 20.52%of the reserve.Among them,the overlap area with the panda habitat was about 110.78 km~2,accounting for 12.96%of the panda habitat in the reserve.2)By comparing the field survey data of giant pandas habitat that were affected by livestock grazing with that of habitat not affected by livestock grazing,found that:the species of shrubs and herbs in the habitats affected by grazing were significantly higher than those in the control areas not affected by grazing;the average diameter at breast height(DBH)of the shrubs in the habitats affected by grazing was significantly higher than that in the affected areas,may possibly be due to herdsmen removing smaller shrubs that are easy to be removed in disturbed areas to clear the path for livestock and themselves.In addition,the diversity indices of herbaceous layer in the habitats affected by grazing were significantly higher than those in the unaffected areas.Since livestock feeding on bamboo,the results showed that the height and stem of the arrow bamboos(Bashania fangiana)in the affected habitats were significantly lower than those in the unaffected areas.What's more,from the results of the transect investigation,the signs of livestock in the affected habitats were significantly higher than those in the unaffected area,while the signs of giant panda and red panda(Ailurus fulgens)in the affected habitats were significantly lower than those in the unaffected area.3)Data from infrared camera shown that in the first phase(2012-2013),there were very few images of livestock and the distribution of livestock is small,while there were many images of the giant panda,red panda,golden monkey(Rhinopithecus roxellana)and sambar(Rusa unicolor),which also suggested that the distributions of these four wild animal were large.In the second phase(2014-2015),the number of images of livestock(P<0.01)increased significantly with the distribution increased as well,while images of red panda(P<0.05)and golden monkey(P<0.01)decreased significantly,and the distributions of these two species have reduced dramatically.Images of the giant panda and sambar also decreased.In the third phase(2016-2017),about two years after the invasion of large numbers of livestock in the study area,although the number of images of livestock was still high and the distribution was large,the number of images of the giant panda and red panda increased,while the distributions had also expanded comparing with the second phase.However,there were no images of golden monkeys.Activity patterns of the research objects before and after the large increase of livestock(June 2013)shown that the activity patterns of all the research objects,except sambar,have not changed significantly.Specifically,the results shown that the activities of human and livestock are mainly concentrated during the day.Giant pandas exhibited a activity pattern with multiple alternating peaks and valleys.The red panda and golden monkey had three detection peaks in the daytime.While the only species that had different activity patterns after the livestock policy compared to before was the sambar,which changed from multiple peaks to one peak around dusk.