Temporal And Spatial Niche Of Three Ungulates In Huangnihe Forest Region

From November 2019 to November 2021,the spatial and temporal niche differences of three sympatric ungulates,red deer(Cervus elaphus),roe deer(Capreolus pygargus),and wild boar(Sus scrofa),were studied by using an infrared camera method and large sample method in Huangnihe forest area.The diurnal activity rhythm of the three ungulates and their differences in the growing season and non-growing season were discussed,the habitat distribution of the three ungulates was clarified,the niche differentiation of the three animals was analyzed from the perspective of time and space,and the coexistence mechanism of their spatial and temporal niches was further revealed.The main results of the study are as follows:1.Daily activity rhythm+The diurnal activity rhythms of red deer,roe deer,and wild boar in different seasons were calculated by using the kernel density estimation method,and the diurnal activity rhythm overlap index of the three ungulates in different seasons and among different species was calculated,and the degree of overlap of the three ungulates was analyzed.The results show that:(1)Red deer belonged to the dawn-dusk type,and the peak of daily activity rhythm appeared at about 18:00.There were some seasonal changes in the growing season and non-growing season,and the overlap index of daily activity rhythm in the two seasons was low(overlap index=0.47).The activity intensity in the morning of the growing season was higher than that in the non-growing season,while the activity intensity in the daytime and nighttime was lower than that in the non-growing season.(2)Roe deer belongs to the dawn-dusk type,and the peak of daily activity rhythm appears at about 17:00.There are some seasonal changes in the growing season and non-growing season,and the overlap index of daily activity rhythm in two seasons is higher(overlap index=0.713).The activity intensity in the morning in the growing season is higher than that in the non-growing season,while the activity intensity in the daytime and nighttime in the non-growing season is lower than that in the non-growth season.(3)Wild boars are diurnal animals,and the peak of their daily activity rhythm appears at about 16:00.There are some seasonal changes in the growing season and non-growing season,and the overlap index of their daily activity rhythm is higher in the two seasons(the overlap index=0.749).The activity intensity in the growing season is higher than that in the non-growing season before noon,but lower in the afternoon.(4)The overlap index of the daily activity rhythm pattern of the three ungulates is high,the overlap index of red deer and roe deer is=0.953,and the overlap index of daily activity rhythm in different seasons is also high(growing season=0.682,non-growing season=0.940);The overlap index of red deer and wild boar was=0.749,which was lower in the growing season(=0.436)and higher in the non-growing season(=0.815);The overlap index of wild boar and roe deer was=0.744.The overlap index of the daily activity rhythm of roe deer and wild boar was low(=0.401)in the growing season and high(=0.811)in the non-growing season.Among them,red deer and roe deer belong to dawn and dusk animals,and wild boar belongs to diurnal animals.The activity rhythm peaks of the three animals are staggered,and there is temporal niche differentiation.2.HabitatData of 11 environmental variables including coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest,deciduous coniferous forest,evergreen coniferous forest,deciduous broad-leaved forest,cultivated land,road,residential area,elevation,slope,slope aspect,and slope position were obtained from the geospatial data cloud platform of the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The maximum entropy model(Max Ent 3.4.1)was used to model and analyze the habitats of red deer,roe deer,and wild boar,and ENMTools 1.3 was used to calculate the niche overlap of red deer,roe deer,and wild boar.The results show that:(1)The habitat area of red deer is 253.33 km~2.Altitude(40.3%),road distance(17.5%),residential distance(9.6%),and coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest distance(8.6%)were the most important environmental variables for the distribution of red deer habitat,accounting for 76%.The habitat area of roe deer was 242.85 km~2.Road distance(29.2%),residential area distance(22%),coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest distance(12.4%),and cultivated land distance(10.5%)were the four environmental variables with higher importance to the habitat distribution of roe deer,accounting for 74.1%.The habitat area of wild boar was 241.56 km~2.The four environmental variables with higher distribution importance are cultivated land distance(20.2%),coniferous,and broad-leaved mixed forest distance(15.6%),road distance(15.3%)and altitude(12.1%),accounting for 68.2%.(2)The Schoener’D(D)and Hellinger’s(I)of red deer and roe deer were 0.648 and 0.865,respectively,and the overlapping area was 139.34 km~2;The Schoener’D(D)and Hellinger’s(I)values of red deer and wild pig were 0.601 and 0.809,respectively,and the overlapping area was117.26 km~2;The Schoener’D(D)and Hellinger’s(I)values of roe deer and wild boar were0.701 and 0.912,respectively,and the overlapping area was 137.04 km~2.The results indicated that the spatial niches of wapiti,roe deer,and wild boar were differentiated.In this study,the temporal and spatial niche differences of three ungulates in the Huangnihe forest area were studied,which not only provided basic data for the ecological protection and research of ungulates but also provided a reference for the protection of carnivorous animals such as Amur tiger in this area.