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 activ...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.展开更多
Background:The Oriental Stork(Ciconia boyciana)breeds in southeastern Siberia and parts of northeast China,and winters mainly in southeast China.Although the autumn migration pattern of Oriental Storks has been previ-...Background:The Oriental Stork(Ciconia boyciana)breeds in southeastern Siberia and parts of northeast China,and winters mainly in southeast China.Although the autumn migration pattern of Oriental Storks has been previ-ously described,differences between spring and autumn migration travel speed in relation to wind assistance were unknown.Methods:Using GPS/GSM transmitters,we tracked the full migrations of 18 Oriental Storks during 2015-2018 to compare differences in autumn and spring migration patterns,and combined the satellite telemetry data with the National Center for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis data to explain the relationship between 850 mbar wind vec-tors and seasonal differences in travel speed.Results:Differences in tailwinds contributed to significant differences in daily average Oriental Storks travel speed in spring(258.11±64.8 km/day)compared to autumn(172.23±49.7 km/day,p<0.001).Storks stopped significantly more often in autumn than spring(1.78±1.1 versus 1.06±0.9,p<0.05),but stopover duration(15.52±12.4 versus 16.30±15.1 days,respectively,p=0.3)did not differ significantly.Tailwinds at 850 mbar pressure level(extracted from the National Center of Environmental Prediction Reanalysis data archive)significantly affected daily flying speed dur-ing spring and autumn migration.Tailwind conditions in spring(mean 4.40±5.6 m/s)were always more favourable than in autumn when they received no net benefit(0.48±5.6 m/s,p<0.001).Despite mean spring migration dura-tion being less than autumn(27.52±15.9 versus 32.77±13.4 days,p=0.17),large individual variation meant that this duration did not differ significantly from each other.Conclusions:For long distance migratory soaring birds(such as storks),relative duration of spring and autumn migration likely relates to the interaction between imperative for earliest arrival to breeding grounds and seasonal meteorological conditions experienced en route.展开更多
The Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) is a large and endangered waterbird in East Asia.Research on conservation genetics of this species is urgently needed.In this study,microsatellite marking technology was use...The Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) is a large and endangered waterbird in East Asia.Research on conservation genetics of this species is urgently needed.In this study,microsatellite marking technology was used for screening and analysis of genetic diversity of microsatellite markers in Oriental White Storks.A total of 36 pairs of microsatellite primers were used,of which 7 pairs came from Ciconia ciconia,12 pairs from Nipponia nippon and 17 pairs from Ardea herodias.Microsatellite loci were screened from 23 individuals of the Oriental White Stork and 11 microsatellite loci were found with high polymorphism.The number of population alleles ranged from 3 to 11,averaging 7.09.The average expected heterozygosity (H e) was 0.7816 and the average polymorphism information content (PIC) 0.7172,suggesting a relatively high genetic diversity in the population.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 3087317, 30470257)the Anhui Academic and Technical Leaders Fund
文摘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.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Programme of China(Grant No.2016YFC0500406)International Cooperation and Exchange project NSFC(Grant No.31661143027)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.31870369 and 31970433)China Biodiversity Observation Networks(Sino BON)。
文摘Background:The Oriental Stork(Ciconia boyciana)breeds in southeastern Siberia and parts of northeast China,and winters mainly in southeast China.Although the autumn migration pattern of Oriental Storks has been previ-ously described,differences between spring and autumn migration travel speed in relation to wind assistance were unknown.Methods:Using GPS/GSM transmitters,we tracked the full migrations of 18 Oriental Storks during 2015-2018 to compare differences in autumn and spring migration patterns,and combined the satellite telemetry data with the National Center for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis data to explain the relationship between 850 mbar wind vec-tors and seasonal differences in travel speed.Results:Differences in tailwinds contributed to significant differences in daily average Oriental Storks travel speed in spring(258.11±64.8 km/day)compared to autumn(172.23±49.7 km/day,p<0.001).Storks stopped significantly more often in autumn than spring(1.78±1.1 versus 1.06±0.9,p<0.05),but stopover duration(15.52±12.4 versus 16.30±15.1 days,respectively,p=0.3)did not differ significantly.Tailwinds at 850 mbar pressure level(extracted from the National Center of Environmental Prediction Reanalysis data archive)significantly affected daily flying speed dur-ing spring and autumn migration.Tailwind conditions in spring(mean 4.40±5.6 m/s)were always more favourable than in autumn when they received no net benefit(0.48±5.6 m/s,p<0.001).Despite mean spring migration dura-tion being less than autumn(27.52±15.9 versus 32.77±13.4 days,p=0.17),large individual variation meant that this duration did not differ significantly from each other.Conclusions:For long distance migratory soaring birds(such as storks),relative duration of spring and autumn migration likely relates to the interaction between imperative for earliest arrival to breeding grounds and seasonal meteorological conditions experienced en route.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.3087317)the Anhui Academic and Technical Reserve Candidate Leaders Fund
文摘The Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) is a large and endangered waterbird in East Asia.Research on conservation genetics of this species is urgently needed.In this study,microsatellite marking technology was used for screening and analysis of genetic diversity of microsatellite markers in Oriental White Storks.A total of 36 pairs of microsatellite primers were used,of which 7 pairs came from Ciconia ciconia,12 pairs from Nipponia nippon and 17 pairs from Ardea herodias.Microsatellite loci were screened from 23 individuals of the Oriental White Stork and 11 microsatellite loci were found with high polymorphism.The number of population alleles ranged from 3 to 11,averaging 7.09.The average expected heterozygosity (H e) was 0.7816 and the average polymorphism information content (PIC) 0.7172,suggesting a relatively high genetic diversity in the population.
