| The musk deer Moschus spp.is timid,elusive and solitary animal.Musk deer uses latrines for defecation that can be found scattered throughout its habitat.It prefers and repeatedly uses one or more specific defecation sites.Because of latrine sites playing a crucial way in musk deers behavior,researchers often use latrine sites as a marker.This study was conducted in Tangjiahe national nature reserve,and aims to understand the habitat preference of forest musk deer.In order to achieve this aim,17 quadrats of 1 km x 1 km were laid out based on the elevation gradient.At least one transect line was arranged in each quadrat,and quadrats of 10 m x 10 m were placed at the intervals of 400 m within each transect line,in which we recorded both biotic and abiotic factors.Ivlev’s electivity index,generalized linear model and multiple correspondence analysis were used to analyze the data.We found that forest musk deer Moschus berezovskii prefers to use latrine sites in coniferous and broad leaf forests while they avoid evergreen broad-leaved forest,secondary deciduous broad-leaved forest and evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forest.Latrines of musk deer were densely distributed between 2 000 m and 2 600 m asl.Furthermore,shrub coverage and slope have a crucial role in latrine preference of forest musk deer.To protect and restore habitats is the key way to protect endangered animal.It is basis of habitat protection that habitat suitability assessment.In this study,3S technology and MaxEnt model were used to evaluate the habitat suitability of musk deer in Tangjiahe national nature reserve.The environmental variables including elevation,slope and aspect.Latrine sites as the location of species.The results shows that area of suitable habitat is about 78.2km2(19.6%of the protected area),area of medium suitable habitat is about 132.9 km2(33.2%),area of low grade habitat is about 92.4 km2(23.1%),and area of unsuitable habitat is about 96.4 km2(24.1%).The Jackknife test shows that altitude is the key environmental variable of habitat suitability.The habitat suitability increases with altitude,and the habitat suitability reached the maximum within 2000～2500m above sea level.When altitude>2500m asl or<2000m asl,the habitat suitability decreases with altitude.Therefore,the suitable habitat of the forest musk deer within 2000～2500m asl.This result recommend that when the protected area plans ecotourism or other project,it should be carefully considered to avoid the suitable habitat of forest musk deer.Activity rhythm is an important content in behavioral ecology.It aim to study activity intensity in different time or season.Studying activity rhythm play a crucial role in protecting endanger wildlife.The studies on the activity rhythm of forest musk deer have an important significance to the effective protection of forest musk deer as well as comprehensive measures in domesticated Farming.From August 2018 to January 2019,aims to understand forest musk deer’s activity rhythm,we deployed 23 infrared cameras in Tangjiahe national nature reserve.Daily discrepancy index a,diurnal nocturnal index β,seasonal activity index y were used to analyze seasonal changes in the activity patterns of forest musk deer.The results show that there were two high peak of the daily activity一between 6:00～8:00,and between 16:00～20:00.Diurnal nocturnal index β was<13/24,which shows that forest musk deer is strictly nocturnal animal.The musk deer spends more time in daytime during estrus(November and December)than the non-estrus.Estrus is the most important period in an animal’s life cycle.The energy and time allocation of animals all related to reproductive behaviors.Therefore,the activity intensity of musk deer relate to its specific physiological state. |
