| The China National Nature Reserve for Urad Haloxylon Forest and Asiatic Wild Ass is located in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where there are a lot of rare wild animals, including the main protected targets Urad Haloxylon forest and Asiatic Wild Ass. As belongs to Equidae and Equus Linnaeus, Asiatic Wild Ass is an endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Convention International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (known as the Washington Convention), which is one of the first class focus protected wild animal species as said by China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals. Asiatic Wild Ass used to live in Asia desert and steppe and is a representative species in the open natural landscape in the mid-west Asia. Asiatic Wild Ass plays a crucial role to help construct a functional and structural complete eco-system in desert and steppe. However, recently with the increase of stock farming and the change of ecological environment, the living region for Asiatic Wild Ass has kept shrinking and its population demonstrates a significant decreasing trend.In order to protect endangered animals, it is fundamental to study their feeding and breeding behaviors. In this article, we study Asiatic Wild Ass’s feeding and reproductive behaviors which lives in central Inner Mongolia, the National Nature Reserve for Urad Haloxylon Forest and Asiatic Wild Ass from February 2012 through November 2014.(i) To study the feeding behavior for Asiatic Wild Ass, we use the field observation method and conduct fecal microhistorical analysis. In this study, (1) we collect as many as 21 families and 47 species of local wild plants. Of these wild plants, there are 16 families and 33 species including 5 families of Poaceae, Asteraceae, Leguminosae, Liliaceae, and Chenopodiaceae fed by Asiatic Wild Ass. Poaceae plants are the main food of Asiatic Wild Ass, the RD are the highest in different seasons (47.57%-55.75%). The feeding peak of Leguminosae is summer (RD= 5.65%). The main plants fed by Asiatic Wild Ass are Stipa glareosa, Achnatherum splendens, Setaria viridis, Eragrostis pilosa, Kengia squarrosa, Carex stenophylloides, Ajania achilleoides, Caragana roborovskyi and Allium polycrhizum and so on. (2) Our study proves that high-energy food and good-taste are the most important factors for Asiatic Wild Ass’s feeding strategy, and low selectivity is a significant pattern of the feeding behavior. (3) In different seasons, of all variety of behaviors the ratio of time for the feeding behavior is the highest for Asiatic Wild Ass and the feeding behavior changes significantly as the season changes (spring 63.05%> winter 61.18%> autumn 46.25%> summer 41.13%). In different seasons, the feeding behavior ratio is significant different (P<0.05).(ii) We combine the focal sampling and the scanning sampling methods to study Asiatic Wild Ass’s breeding behaviors including feeding, standing and resting, bedding, moving, standing and gazing, foraging, sexual behavior and others.The study result shows:(1) In the breeding season, there is difference in terms of the ratios of time for the aforementioned behaviors between mature male and female Asiatic Wild Ass. The behaviors of a decreasing ratios of time are feeding (40.75%), standing and gazing (23.16%), resting (16.78%), moving (14.72%), sexual behavior (2.55%) and others (2.04%) for mature male Asiatic Wild Ass and feeding (53.99%), resting (28.35%), moving (6.91%), standing and gazing (6.06%), others (3.02%) and sexual behavior (1.67%) for mature female Asiatic Wild Ass, respectively. It is obvious that the feeding behavior takes the most time for both genders, which can be explained by poor local plants in terms of the amount and the nutrition. (2) In the breeding period, most of members in a population of Asiatic Wild Ass behaves regularly and consistently, which behaves resting and activity alternately. It shows the high adaptability to the environment of Asiatic Wild Ass (3) The season has significant effects on the behaviors of standing and gazing (Fmale= 8.894, Pmale< 0.01; Ffemale= 7.387, Pfemale< 0.01), sexual behavior (Fmale= 5.926, Pmale< 0.01; Ffemale= 7.520, Pfemale< 0.01) and others (Fmale= 5.926, Pmale< 0.01; Ffemale= 7.520, Pfemale< 0.01), but not significantly on the behaviors of moving (Fmale= 2.712, Pmale> 0.05; Ffemale= 1.643, Pfemale> 0.05) and resting (Fmale= 1.344, Pmale> 0.05; Ffemale= 0.939, Pfemale> 0.05) for both genders of Asiatic Wild Ass. Moreover, the season affects the feeding behavior on male Asiatic Wild Ass significantly (Fmale= 8.327, Pmale< 0.01), but not significantly on the female (Ffemale= 2.743, Pfemale> 0.05). And there is a high concordance in the seasonal difference of resting and sexual behaviors for male and female Asiatic Wild Ass. |
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