Analysis Of Activity Rhythm On Wild Green Peafowl And Associated Relationship With Companion Birds And Mammals

The Green Peafowl Pavo muticus was listed as National Priority Level?Protected Animal in China and listed as Endangered species by IUCN.The Green Peafowl had been distributed in Guangdong,Guangxi,Hunan,Hubei,Sichuan and Yunnan provinces widely in history.Currently Green Peafowls are only distribute in Yunnan Province.The distribution area of Green Peafowl has shrunk sharply and the population has decreased from 800~1100 to less than 500 in the past two decades.Xinping County,which belongs to Yuxi City,Yunnan Province,is a relatively concentrated area for wild Green Peafowls in China.From January to December in2017,wild Green Peafowls in Xinping County had been investigated by visiting investigation method,line-transect method and infrared camera method,and combined with global positioning system(GPS),remote sensing(RS)and geographic information system(GIS)technology to obtain the types and areas of Green Peafowl habitats in Xinping County.At the same time,the date and time of infrared camera images had been extracted by Bio-photo software,and the annual activity rhythm and daily activity rhythm of Green Peafowl were calculated by relative activity intensity index RAI.The daily activity rhythms of Green Peafowl,Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus?Silver Pheasant Lophura nycthemera and Lady Amherst's Pheasant Chrysolophus amherstiae were compared and analyzed.The interspecific association index(x~2),point correlation coefficient(PCC)and paired species matching coefficient(PC)were calculated by 2×2 contingency table method to reveal the interspecific association between Green Peafowls and companion birds and mammals.The results showed:(1)There are 126 wild Green Peafowls in Xinping County which distributed in six areas of five townships(Yao village of Zhelong Township,Xiangyang village of Zhelong Township,Zhuanmadu village of Laochang Township,Daiwei village of Xinhua Township,Maluzhai of Yangwu Township,Shuanglongqiao of Guishan street,and the total area of habitats is14511hm~2,which include semi-humid evergreen broad-leaved forest,warm shrub and warm coniferous forest.(2)The daily activity rhythm of Green Peafowls showed that,the daily activity time between 6:00~21:00 with some obvious peaks and troughs,two peaks appeared at 7:00~9:00and 17:00~18:00,showing a double-peak pattern,the maximum relative activity intensity at7:00 and 18:00,the trough at 12:00~15:00.The annual activity rhythm of the Green Peafowl also showed no obvious bimodal pattern,the intensity of activity was relatively high from February to April,and it weakened in May,then increased again from June to July,the activity intensity was lowest from August to January of the next year.(3)The Green Peafowl,Red Junglefowl,Silver Pheasant and Lady Amherst's Pheasant were all diurnal pheasants,in which Green Peafowl,Red Junglefowl and Silver Pheasant showed bimodal activity pattern,and Lady Amherst's Pheasant had multiple diurnal activity peaks.Although the four pheasants which distributed in the same region were competition relationship,however,the peaks occurrence times of four Pheasants were different,and they achieve the separation of the niche by staggering their peak times of activity to reduce the intensity of competition.(4)The results of interspecific association index(x~2)showed that there was a significant ecological connection between Green Peafowl and Red Junglefowl,indicated that the living space,habitat selection and utilization of Green Peafowl and Red Junglefowl were similar,and the encounter rate and ecological overlap rate were relatively high.The ecological connection between Green Peafowl and Oriental Turtle Dove Streptopelia orientalis,Lady Amherst's Pheasant and broom-tailed porcupine Atherurus macrourus were high.The ecological connection with other birds and animals was not strong,and the encounter rate was low.The results of point correlation coefficient(PCC)showed that,the Green Peafowl had the strongest positive correlation with Red Junglefowl,but no correlation with Wild Boar Sus scrofa,and it had the strongest negative correlation with big woodpecker Oriental Turtle Dove.The paired species matching results(PC)showed that,the Green Peafowl was most closely related to Red Junglefowl,and there was no correlation between Green Peafowl with Oriental Turtle Dove,Blue-throated Barbet Megalaima asiatica,Black Drongo Dicrurus macrocercus,Tawny Wood Owl Strix aluco and Mikado Pheasant Syrmaticus humiae.