利用红外照相技术分析野生白冠长尾雉活动节律及时间分配

Activity rhythm and behavioral time budgets of wild Reeves' s Pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) using infrared camera

2012年3月—2013年3月,利用红外相机技术在湖北省广水市蔡河镇对野生白冠长尾雉的活动节律和时间分配进行了研究。利用16台红外相机在40个相机位点对白冠长尾雉进行了监测。累计1774个相机日,拍摄到2242个独立视频,其中白冠长尾雉的视频占18%,共记录538只次,雌雄比为1.43∶1。结果表明,白冠长尾雉每日有两个活动高峰期,上午雄性个体的活动高峰期比雌性个体早两个小时。白冠长尾雉的主要行为是移动和觅食,分别占到总频次的40.71%和33.10%,其余5种行为依次为:警戒9.29%,梳理7.14%,休息5.00%,对抗2.62%,育幼2.14%。雌性白冠长尾雉的警戒行为频次比例显著高于雄性个体(P<0.05)。不同季节之间取食行为、移动行为、对抗行为比例之间有显著差异,冬季的取食行为比例明显高于夏季(P<0.05),夏季移动行为比例显著高于秋季(P<0.05)和冬季(P<0.05),而警戒、梳理、休息和育幼行为比例则无显著差异。

The researches on activity rhythm and behavioral time budgets of vulnerable or endangered species were of great importance to form the effective conservation strategies, Reeves＇s Pheasant （Syrmaticus reevesii） was a vulnerable species endemic to China, whereas little information on activity rhythm and behavioral time budgets of this species was available. Therefore, we used infrared camera technology, from March 2012 to March 2013, to survey the activity rhythm and behavioral time budgets of wild Reeves＇s Pheasant （Syrmaticus reevesii） in Caihe Town, Guangshui City, Hubei province. We radio tracked and outlined 8 Reeves＇s Pheasants in the study area at first, and then we determined 4-5 sites as candidate camera sites in each home range. We selected two camera sites with a distance apart from at least 200 m in a home range synchronously, and irregularly moved these cameras across the candidate camera sites in this home range. In consequence, we set 16 infrared cameras at 40 candidate camera sites. The daily work time of a camera was set from 4：00 to 22：00 with the reference to some previous reports on this pheasant behavior, and we defined it as a camera day. We also divided the behavior of wild Reeves＇s Pheasant into seven types, including feeding, moving, grooming, vigilance, resting, conflicting, and raising According to the available information on pheasant behavior. As a result, the total work time of these cameras in the field added up to 1774 d. We obtained totally 2242 videos in relation to Reeves＇s Pheasants that were responsible for about 18% with a total of 538 individuals in relation to 396 behavior samples. The sex ratio between the female and male photoed is 1.43：1. Two diurnal activity peaks were observed for the wild individuals, and the activity peak in the morning was around 9：00 and that in the afternoon was around 17：00. In particular, the activity peak of the males in the morning was much earlier about two hours than that of females, i.e. 7：00-9：00 for the males and 9：00-11：00 for the females. The behavior of moving and feeding dominated the diurnal behaviors of Reeves＇s Pheasant, accounting for 40.71% and 33.10%, respectively, and then followed in order by vigilance （9.29%）, grooming （7.14%）, resting （5.00%）, conflicting （2.62%）, raising （2.14%）. The frequency of vigilance of females was significantly higher than that of the males. The wild Reeves＇s Pheasant also showed significant seasonal behavior variations, and the rate of feeding, moving, and conflicting varied among seasons. For example, the feeding frequency in winter was much higher than that in summer （P 〈 0.05）, and the moving frequency in summer was higher than that in autumn （P 〈 0.05） and winter （P 〈 0.05）, whereas the frequency of conflicting, grooming, resting, and raising did not differ significantly. Given this study was conducted in an area with higher human disturbance, it was reasonable to recommend these results to that happened in an area with less human disturbance （e.g. nature reserves） in the future. The practice of this study also proved that infrared camera technology is very suitable for studying highly alert and rare terrestrial forest birds.