Behaviors of the Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) in a semi-natural enclosure

半圈养环境下东方白鹳的行为适应性研究(英文)

Environmental factors affect animal behavior in a variety of ways. Compared to animals in the wild, captive animals are kept in narrow enclosures, suffer higher densities and are more intensely affected by human activities. Therefore, behavioral elasticity is likely modified to some extent in captive animals, which may negatively affect the possibility of successful release of endangered species in the wild. In our study we investigated the behaviors of the Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) in a semi-natural enclosure from 15 October 2005 to 8 September 2006 in Hefei Wildlife Park, China. The behavioral data were collected by instantaneous and scan sampling methods, and we analyzed the relationships between environmental factors and their behaviors. The amounts of time spent on maintenance behavior (foraging and moving) were at similar levels for birds reproducing multibroods (Group 1), birds reproducing one brood (Group 2) and birds without reproduction (Group 3). On the other hand, the amount of time spent on elastic behavior (defensive, breeding and preening) for Group 3 was lower than that for Groups 1 and 2. The behavioral pattern of the storks exhibited marked seasonal changes, which may be a function of ambient temperature, human disturbanc, and the length of daylight, but not of wind intensity. Our results provide basic data for future conser- vation measures of this endangered species.

环境因素会影响到动物行为的表达。圈养环境和野生环境相比,活动空间小、种群密度高,且人为干扰强度大。动物在圈养环境下往往表现出较多的刚性行为而丧失许多弹性的行为,并出现一些刻板行为,这可能导致动物在圈养条件下繁殖失败或存活率较低,还会影响到以后将其再引入到野外环境下的成功率。为了了解东方白鹳(Ciconia boyciana)在圈养环境下的现状,以及影响圈养个体的受胁因素,我们于2005年10月至2006年9月,在合肥野生动物园,对环境因子、人为干扰和自身繁殖周期等因素与行为之间的相关性进行了研究,通过瞬间扫描取样法采集行为数据。结果表明:繁殖多代组(组 1),繁殖一代组(组 2)和非繁殖组(组 3)相比,维持行为(觅食和运动)的比例没有变化,但是弹性行为(防御、理羽及繁殖)的比例在 3 组之间存在差异。相对于繁殖组,非繁殖组呈现出较少的弹性行为。同时,由于不同季节环境温度、人为干扰、日照时间的变化,使得不同行为的时间分配也随之发生变化。通过对东方白鹳在半圈养条件下行为时间分配和环境因子的相关性研究,希望能为这一濒危物种未来的保护提供基础数据。