| From June 2006 to November 2007 at Taishan Amur Tiger Park,with all-occurrence recording,focal-animal sampling and behavior sampling methods,we chose 7 semi-free-ranging Arnur tigers(4 males,3 females)to investigate activity rhythms and reproductive behaviors during breeding stages and anestrous seasons,and mensurated fecal gonadal hormone concentrations in Amur tiger during different periods with radioimmunoassay method. At last,we analyse the relations between reproductive behaviors and gonadal hormone concentrations in Amur tiger.The main results are as follows:1 As to the time budget,male and female Amur tiger spent most time in resting,more time in moving,and less time in eating and other behaviors;and eating time(P＜0.05)was significant different and time in other behaviors was similar between male and female Amur tiger,during anestrous season.During rutting period,male Amur tiger spent most time in resting and moving,more time in rutting,copulating and other behaviors;and spent less resting time(P＜0.05)and more other behaviors time(P＜0.01)than those in anestrous season. During rutting period,female Amur tiger spent most time in moving and resting,more time in rutting,copulating and other behaviors;and the time budget of all behaviors during rutting period and anestrous season are similar(P＞0.05).The time budget of male and female Amur tiger were similar during rutting periods(P＞0.05).During lactation female Amur tiger spent most time in resting,more time in nursing,and less time in moving.Resting time,moving time and eating time were all significant different(P＜0.01)and time in other behaviors was similar of female Amur tiger among anestrous season,rutting period and lactation.For the activity rhythm,the peak of resting was recorded at 11:00-13:00;sleeping at 13:00-15:00,moving at 11:00-13:00 and behind 15:00;and other behaviors had no peaks of male Amur tiger during anestrous season.The peak of resting was recorded at 9:00-11:00 and behind 15:00;sleeping at 11:00-15:00,moving at 9:00-11:00 and behind 15:00;and other behaviors had no peaks of female Amur tiger during anestrous season. During rutting periods,activity rhythms of male and female Amur tiger were similar,and the peak of resting was recorded at 11:00-14:00;sleeping at 12:00-13:00,moving at 9:00-10:00 and behind 15:00;and many rutting and copulating behaviors which included sniffing,wallow,chinesisch and frequent urinating were recorded.Lactation changed obviously. Female tiger almost always kept rest in day before it went out.The peak of resting was recordedat9:00-10:00 and 11:00-17:00;moving at 11:00-12:00 and 16:00-16:30; and activity rhythms of resting and lactation were similar.After female tiger went out,it rested mainly 9:00-14:00 and 15:00-16:00;lactation at 9:00-13:00.Female tiger had no obvious moving peak.Eating behaviors of Amur tiger only occurred from 17:00 to 18:00 because the fixed breeding pattern.2 Male and female Amur tiger had sexual solicitation,and mating activities were often initiated by female tiger which had obvious sexual solicitation behaviors and given patterns. Sometimes,although female tiger sniffed the male forwardly and had tail erection,it didn't want to mate.And male was generally refused when it tried to mount at this time.3 During the whole mating period,every female had 28±3 sexual solicitations per day averagely with the average lasting time of 20.0±1.2 seconds,and every male mounted 14±1 times each day averagely.The average thrusting duration was 20.9±0.5 seconds,and the average mating duration was 45.2±1.3 seconds.4 There was no copulatory lock during mating,and the male usually ejaculated following a single intromission after several thrusts.The percentage of ejaculations happening again within an hour was about 74.0%.Amur tigers had a copulatory pattem with no lock,thrusting, multiple intromission,and single ejaculation,which belonged to copulatory pattern No.11 in Dewsbury's copulatory-patterned system.5 The behaviors that accounted for most of the total time budget during the parturition period were grooming,lying and licking kittens,26.90%,26.23%and 23.83%,respectively. The behaviors that occurred most frequently were grooming(37.95%),abdominal contraction(18.75%),and licking kittens(12.50%).6 During nursiing period female Amur tiger lactationing time and nursing time were all significant different(P＜0.01)from indoor and outdoor period,went out time was significant (P＜0.05).Lactating frequence were 5.75±0.36%and 3.75±0.19%in indoor and outdoor period.Lactating time were 1919.00±93.60s and 885.26±38.04s in two defferent period. Lactating frequence and lactating time were all significant different(P＜0.01).7 Fecal E2 concentration on the tigers kept the higher lever during rutting period.Fecal E2 concentration was usually more than 400pg/g and the peak of it reached over more than 1200pg/g.Fecal E2 concentration was usually less than 400pg/g during nurseing period.Fecal E2 concentration kept usually low levers during anestrous season,and was similar with the fecal E2 concentrations of the time before rutting period.There were very obvious difference of E2 concentration on female tiger among rutting period,nurseing period and anestrous season.8 Fecal P concentrations was usually less than 100ng/g during anestrous season,rutting period and nurseing period,and the concentration during nurseing period kept higher level than those during anestrous season and rutting period.The peak of P concentration during nurseing period was more than 400ng/g.There were obvious difference of P concentration among anestrous season,rutting period and nurseing period.9 Fecal T concentrations of male Amur tiger kept the higher lever and were usually more than 200ng/g during rutting period.The peak of T concentrations reached over more than 550ng/g.T concentrations on males were very low and not more than 200ng/g during anestrous season.There were significant differences of T concentrations on males between rutting period and anestrous season.
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