Behavioral Time Budget And Diet Of The Chinese Crocodile Lizard (Shinisaurus Crocodilurus) In The Luokeng Nature Reserve, Guangdong

Chinese crocodile lizard which should receive specially protects is priserved as the first class protected animal in China and included the CITES appendix in II in 1989. Due to human activities, their habitats are destroyed seriously, which causes very great population declines. However, up to now, little is known about this endangered species. We collected data on behavioral time budget, activity rhythm and diet at Luokeng Reserve from April to October 2006, so as to provide the ecology basic data for the protection and the management of the Chinese crocodile lizard. The main results were as following:1. Behavioral time budget and activity rhythm: Chinese crocodile lizard spent the most time in resting, followed by in-nest, sun bathing, moving, feeding and others. There were highly significant difference in moving, feeding and others between adult and juveniles. In deferent seasons, adult had significant difference in moving, sun bathing and highly significant difference in in-nest. Juveniles had significant difference in feeding and others, highly significant difference in moving, in-nest and resting. The weather affected the behavior of moving and sun bathing significantly to adult and the behavior of feeding, sun bathing and resting high significantly to juveniles. For the diurnal activity rhythm, there was no obvious rhythm in feeding, but its peak often followed the peak of others and moving. The behavior of sun bathing had two obvious peaks in morning and the afternoon, but had a trough at noon. The behavior of in-nest mainly occurred in the spring and autumn, the peak appeared in moring and evening. Seasonal change was apparent in activity pattern. And they also differed among different climate: In sunny days the duration and the intensity of sun bathing was higher than cloudy and rainy days. In rainy days Chinese crocodile lizard moved more frequently and presented many obvious peaks.2. Diet: Chinese crocodile lizard consumed a broad range of annelid, molluscan and arthropod invertebrates covering more than 20 families. Analyses of stomach contents showed that, for adult males, the most important prey items overall were Pheretima (34.78%), Araneida (8.70%), Tettigoniidae (8.70%) and Cicadidae (8.70%); And for adult males, they were Pheretima (50%); While for juveniles, they were Pheretima (36.59%) and Araneida (14.63%); Food niche breadth was 6.22 for adult males, 3.33 for adult female and 5.74 for juveniles. Food niche overlap between male and female adults was 0.995, for female adults and juveniles was 0.990, while for male adults and juveniles was 0.970. The prey size and diet volume of adults were bigger than juveniles. Moreover, prey size and diet volume was significant difference between adults and juveniles. Prey size and diet volume was not significant related to body size of adults and juveniles.