Monitoring behavior, ecology, and demographic patterns of free ranging giant pandas in the Wolong Nature Reserve (China)

Reliable data on the distribution, abundance and behavior of wild giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are often impractical or impossible to acquire due to their secretive, elusive, and/or highly dispersed nature. Research in this study was conducted in the Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan, China, and was designed to develop, test, and improve invasive and non-invasive methods for collecting data and answer questions regarding the size, structure, and vagility of giant panda social and geographic units. Results for remotely activated cameras suggest this techniques utility, due to a low rate of return per sampling unit (5 panda visits in 648 camera days), may be limited to presence/absence studies. A simple and reliable genetic sexing method aimed at degraded, low yield DNA extractions from giant panda hair and feces was designed and utilized to identify the sex of 29 free ranging giant pandas sampled from a 200 km2 area in the reserve. I assessed the utility of genetic mark-recapture, the quantification of minimum known number (MKN) from microsatellite genotyping, and bamboo stem fragment (BSF) techniques, for monitoring and estimating giant panda population size from non-invasively collected fecal and hair samples. The BSF analysis resulted in an estimated population for the Wuyipeng area of 12 to 21 pandas. Genetic analysis of 8 microsatellite DNA markers resulted in 53 captures of 29 known individuals (12 males, 14 females and 3 unknown) from the greater 200 km 2 study area and 25 captures of 10 (3 males, 5 females and 2 unknown) individuals for the 35 km2 Wuyipeng area. The genetic mark-recapture estimate for the Wuyipeng study area was 11 (SE = 1.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] of 11--8). There was good agreement between each technique. Results suggest that with sufficient effort MKN approaches an absolute estimate of panda numbers and offers a powerful technique for monitoring giant panda populations. Although non-invasive techniques offer great promise, the use of radiotelemetry in the study of free-ranging giant pandas has and will continue to prove crucial to our understanding of their ecology and behavior. Lack of knowledge about the effects of radiocollars and handling on radiocollared pandas led to a moratorium on radiocollaring in 1995. Results reported here suggest that any potential negative effects from radiocollaring giant pandas are negligible and, with proper planning and use, radiotelemetry can be safely utilized and compliment non-invasive techniques to study and gain important data necessary to further conservation of free-ranging giant pandas.