| The ultimate aim of breeding Giant Panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca is to release the captive breeding individuals into the wild to rebuild, recruit or rejuvenate the wild population. With the rapid increase of breeding Giant Panda population, China is currently conceiving and actualizing an epoch-marking plan of releasing & reintroducing pandas into the wild, which has been made a priority and major part of Giant Panda conservation programmes. A lot of things are to be done before in a large scale implementing this novel and unprecedented plan, and an absolutely necessary step of the plan is habitat assessment aiming at determining: Is the candidate habitat (Wolong) suitable for Giant Pandas, particularly in forage supply including quantity and quality? If"yes", then how many panda individuals can it accommodate? And, is it suitable for releasing pandas into? To seek answers to these questions, we carried out a 3-scant-year investigation (from winter 2004 to spring 2006) and drew the following results & conclusions:(1) To provide criterion of habitat assessment, we summarized the characteristics of giant pandas'habitat selection. The environmental variables that have been studied and the methods used were summarized.(2) We established 17 fixed transect lines in 5 sites of Wolong that are representative of the habitat zones in the reserve as a whole. By investigating the biotic and abiotic environmental factors in sample plots we established, we highlight the habitat status of A. melanoleuca in the reserve.(3) Based on the 239 sample plots investigated from winter of 2005 to spring of 2006, for the first time, we calculated the niche width index, habitat selection index of all the wildlife species, and niche overlap index of Giant Panda with its companying wildlife species.(4) Based on standard bamboo plants sampled from different elevations in different sites in Wolong, we established mono-, bi-, and tri - factorial biomass regression models of Bashania fangiana, Fargesia robusta, and Fargesia nitida, respectively. After trading off between the prediction precision and operation convenience, we perceived that the bi-factorial regression models (esp. the Power models) are more realistic and advisable compared to mono-factorial or tri-factorial regression models.(5) Employing the bi - factorial power regression models developed in this paper into the three investigations from winter of 2004 to spring of 2006, we estimated the extant above-ground biomass and the spatiotemporal dynamics of above-ground biomass of Bashania fangiana, Fargesia robusta, and Fargesia nitida, respectively.(6) Integrating the results of Hu et al. (1985) into the current biomass of Bashania fangiana, pandas'staple food in Wolong, we made a crude estimation of carrying capacity of Wolong for A. melanoleuca as 911.205 - 1162.217, equal to 3.03735 - 3.87406 per km2 of Bashania fangiana. Though a conservative estimate, it is still several times beyond the current amount of living pandas in Wolong, 143.(7) Considering thatâ‘ bamboo plants of Bashania fangiana and Fargesia robusta tend to have robust growth potential in Wuyipeng and Yingxionggou, with high density of young bamboo;â‘¡there are more activity of pandas'in Wuyipeng -Yingxionggou than in Hetaoping - Mount Niutou;â‘¢the habitat selection index of Giant Panda is higher in Wuyipeng -Yingxionggou than in Hetaoping - Mount Niutou;â‘£most environmental factors coincide with the ecology of Giant Panda, we hold the view that Wuyipeng - Gulf Hero area is more suitable to release pandas into. Comparatively,â‘ the bamboo species (Fargesia nitida) in Dengsheng area is not fit for the appetite of Giant Panda;â‘¡there are more disturbance (mainly graze) in Dengsheng;â‘¢it is much farther from Dengsheng to China Conservation and Research Center (CCRC) than from the other four places to CCRC, therefore, Dengsheng area seems not suitable for pandas to be released into for the time being.
|
PDF Full Text Request