秃鹫巢内育雏期亲鸟与幼鸟行为及时间分配

Behavior and Time Budget of Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus at Nest during the Nestling Period

2016和2017年,采用焦点动物取样法及全事件记录法,在新疆和静县巴仑台镇研究了4个繁殖巢的秃鹫(Aegypius monachus)繁殖行为。通过红外相机和人工观察,构建了秃鹫巢内育雏期的行为谱,将秃鹫亲鸟的行为划分为9类33种,将雏鸟行为划分为6类28种。结果表明,亲鸟喂食次数的最高峰出现在12:30~13:30时,随后在15:30~18:30时之间出现一个小高峰。在育雏期,亲鸟行为以护幼、观望和警戒为主,雏鸟则以休息和观望为主。将巢内育雏期分为三个阶段:育雏前期(4~5月)、育雏中期(6月)、育雏后期(7月),运用单因素方差分析(one-way ANOVA)检验不同育雏阶段亲鸟、雏鸟行为时间分配的差异。结果显示,育雏前期与后期之间亲鸟的行为时间分配差异不显著(P>0.05),前期与中期和中期与后期之间,亲鸟的行为时间分配差异均显著(P<0.01);育雏前期、中期与后期的雏鸟行为时间分配差异均显著(P<0.01)。国内秃鹫繁殖主要面临食物短缺、人类活动干扰等威胁。

To understand the behavior patterns, including the time budget of endangered animals is important to make better conservation measures. During March to October in 2016 and 2017, we observed the behaviors of 4 pairs of Cinereous Vulture （Aegypius monachus） and their nestlings during the nestling period, using the focal sampling method and all occurrence recording method, in Hejing County, Xinjiang, China. The study area is located in the Tianshan Mts （42°50′﹣43°02′N, 86°03′﹣86°32′E）. Two or three infrared cameras were set up around each nest and about 110 thousand photos with over 90 h videos were captured. We also observed the behavior of parents and nestlings, 400﹣600 m far away from the nest, for 35 d （412 h） during the nestling period. All the behaviors of Cinereous Vulture, defined by the postures and actions, were classified into 9 categories （including 33 behaviors） for parents and 6 categories （including 28 behaviors） for nestlings according to the motivations and functions. During the nestling period, caring, alerting and looking of the time budget of parents and resting and looking of nestlings were dominant. The times of feeding the nestlings from the parents reached the peak at 12：30﹣13：30, followed by the second peak at 15：30﹣18：30 （Fig. 2）. The length of nestling period of Cinereous Vulture lasted for （97 ± 6.16） d （90﹣105 d）, and we divided the entire nestling period into three stages （Pre-nestling： April and May, Mid-nestling： June, Post-nestling： July） and analyzed the time budget of parents and nestlings during the three stages （Table 1 and 2）. The time budget of pre-nestling period was analyzed according to the videos, and the other two stages were analyzed according to the observation supplemented with the data of cameras by time. The differences of these budgets were tested by one-way ANOVA. We found that： there was no significant difference between the time budget of pre-nestling and post-nestling of parents （P 〉 0.05） while either the difference between pre-nestling and mid-nestling or between mid-nestling and post-nestling was significant （P 〈 0.01）; the difference between any two stages of nestlings was significant （P 〈 0.01）. During the post-nestling period, the defecating numbers of nestling （3.52 ± 1.92） was much more than the feeding numbers from parents （0.93 ± 0.96） which, we believed, was related to the behavior of food storage and bad weather （Fig. 3）. As the nestling period progressed, the time of first return of parents with food was gradually delayed （Fig. 4）, we suggested that lack of food and anthropogenic factors might influence the breed success of the Cinereous Vulture in Xinjiang.