Anas poecilorhyncha is one of improved variety of mallards, which was the protected bird species listed by International Union for Conservation of Nature （1UCN）. Little is known until now about behavioral characteri...Anas poecilorhyncha is one of improved variety of mallards, which was the protected bird species listed by International Union for Conservation of Nature （1UCN）. Little is known until now about behavioral characteristics of the mallard. The objective of this study was to compare the behavioral differentials between A. poecilorhyncha and domestic duck in order to make a strategy to manage A. poecilorhyncha under the condition of animal welfare. A total of 180 birds were distributed into six groups with 30 birds for each group. They were placed in a room of 3 m ~ 4 m and fed for one year old. Sansui ducks, a kind of native domestic duck （Sansui laying duck） were used for behavioral comparison. Two different rooms in the same building were applied, one room for A. poecilorhyncha and another one for Sansui ducks. All behaviors for A. poecilorhyncha and Sansui ducks were coded using the program The Observer XT 11.5 （Noldus Information Technology, Beijing）. The duration of observation was from 8：00 am to 18：00 pm daily and lasted 5 d. The results showed that there were similar behavioral percentages between A. poecilorhyncha and domestic duck. Percentages of standing activity spent for A. poecilorhyncha and Sansui duck were 34.59% and 30.25%, respectively. Accordingly, the activities, such as wing plugging, preening and head stretching, were more than 5.51%. The other activities, including walking, drinking and tail wagging, occupied less proportions （〈 3%）. While the specific behaviors, like aggression, alerting, wing dithering, clawing, nodding, pendulum clawing and crawling, took less than 1% of percentage. There were large differences between A. poecilorhyncha and domestic duck when comparing eight behavioral peaks. Lag sequential analysis was used to calculate frequency of transition between a pair of activities. Some parameters were very significant, like the frequency value from foraging converted to drinking in Sansui duck was 369-515, but 37-65 in A. poecilorhyncha. The best explaining could be given that Sansui duck was better domesticated than spot-billed duck. This study provides the basic data to study and develop spot-billed duck.展开更多
文摘Anas poecilorhyncha is one of improved variety of mallards, which was the protected bird species listed by International Union for Conservation of Nature （1UCN）. Little is known until now about behavioral characteristics of the mallard. The objective of this study was to compare the behavioral differentials between A. poecilorhyncha and domestic duck in order to make a strategy to manage A. poecilorhyncha under the condition of animal welfare. A total of 180 birds were distributed into six groups with 30 birds for each group. They were placed in a room of 3 m ~ 4 m and fed for one year old. Sansui ducks, a kind of native domestic duck （Sansui laying duck） were used for behavioral comparison. Two different rooms in the same building were applied, one room for A. poecilorhyncha and another one for Sansui ducks. All behaviors for A. poecilorhyncha and Sansui ducks were coded using the program The Observer XT 11.5 （Noldus Information Technology, Beijing）. The duration of observation was from 8：00 am to 18：00 pm daily and lasted 5 d. The results showed that there were similar behavioral percentages between A. poecilorhyncha and domestic duck. Percentages of standing activity spent for A. poecilorhyncha and Sansui duck were 34.59% and 30.25%, respectively. Accordingly, the activities, such as wing plugging, preening and head stretching, were more than 5.51%. The other activities, including walking, drinking and tail wagging, occupied less proportions （〈 3%）. While the specific behaviors, like aggression, alerting, wing dithering, clawing, nodding, pendulum clawing and crawling, took less than 1% of percentage. There were large differences between A. poecilorhyncha and domestic duck when comparing eight behavioral peaks. Lag sequential analysis was used to calculate frequency of transition between a pair of activities. Some parameters were very significant, like the frequency value from foraging converted to drinking in Sansui duck was 369-515, but 37-65 in A. poecilorhyncha. The best explaining could be given that Sansui duck was better domesticated than spot-billed duck. This study provides the basic data to study and develop spot-billed duck.
