Abstract:
The alpine musk deer (Moschus sifanicus) is endemic to China and presently endangered owing to over-harvesting for its valuable musk and habitat loss, and musk deer faming is an important measure to conserve the wild populations and utilize the musk sustainably. The behavior patterns of alpine musk deer, however, must be understood, and applied into faming practice, on the basis of which, an appropriate taming and managing system could be developed. The aim of this study was to record and compare the behavioral patterns of captive alpine musk deer, in order to investigate differences in activity patterns in relation to season and its underlying causes. From August 2006 to January 2007, the behavioral patterns of 19 adult male and 13 adult female captive alpine musk deer were observed at the Xinglongshan Musk Deer Farm (XMDF) of Xinglongshan National Nature Reserve, Gansu Province of China. The faecal animal sampling and all-occurrence recording were used to record behavioral frequencies, and the behavioral comparison was made to decide the impacts of season on behavioral patterns of captive alpine musk deer. The results showed that from pre-rut season (from August to October) to rut season (from November to January next year), both of male and female demonstrated increased locomotor, defaecating-urinating scent, tail-pasting, standing alert, environment sniffing and agonistic behavior, but decreased feeding and ruminating, moreover, female elicited male specific tail-pasting behavior. The energetic requirement in special physiological phase and preparation for reproduction were emphasized as the causations for the changing activity budgets.
Page(s):
389-395
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Pakistan Journal of Zoology, Volume: 40, Issue: 6, Year: 2008