The Study On Habitat Selection And Feeding Ecology Of Masked Palm Cievets In Hubei Houhe Nature Reserve

Relations can be found between epidemic disease of wildlife and their habitats, such as habitat selection, food composition, and prey. The study of habitat selection and food is helpful for the deficiency studies on the basic biology and ecology of Masked Palm Civets (paguma larvata) even the whole viverrine wildlife. Meanwhile, it provides science gist for the conservation of masked palm civets and related species in the future, and also the study of SARS-Cov like viruses and the co-evolution of wildlife.The habitat selection and food ecology of Masked Palm Civets were studied with radio telemetric techniques and transects methods in Houhe nature reserve from April to October, 2005.Habitat selection: 52 trails were spotted in spring, 72 in summer and 75 in autumn. Principal Components Analysis and Resource Selection Index methods were taken to determine the habitat selection of masked palm civets. We found that slope location and water were main impacts on habitat selection of masked palm civets in spring, also canopy cover, the distance to roads, herbage cover, vegetation, the distance to residents and slope direction were included in it. In summer, food resource became the principal impact that was necessary for masked palm civets, other factors contains the distance to residents, distance to road, logs, vegetation and ground surface. However, shrub density, slope location and altitude formed the essential components for masked palm civets in autumn, still many other impacts contribute greatly for the selection of masked palm civets, such as food, cover, disturbance, herbage, water, slope direction, logs and vegetation. We also found that the seasonal variation of food resources leads to the seasonal difference of habitat selection in masked palm civets.The study of food ecology was constituted by the research on diet and its seasonal difference, also food behavior and feeding site selection were contained. We found that the food components of masked palm civets can be described as: 50% animal food, 20% no-fruits food, and 30%fruits food in spring;25% animal food, 18.75% no-fruits food, and 56.25% fruits food in summer;15.79% animal food, 5.26% no-fruits food and 78.5% fruits food in autumn. The seasonal difference of food components indicated the change of food selection, in which the percentage of animal food and no-fruits food decreased with the increase of fruits food.We described the feeding behavior of masked palm civets, and discussed the mechanism to form. The feeding sites selection of masked palm civets: fruits will ripe in autumn and the masked palm civets feeding behavior was based on food diversity and fecundity, which were, also main impacts that affected feeding habitat selection. The other factors also have the effects on feeding sites selection to different extent separately, such as slope direction distanced fromroad, vegetation types, herbage density, and canopy cover and distanced from water.