Study On Foraging Betavior And Sex Proportion Of Squirrel(Sciurus Vulgaris) In Sun Island

Squirrels(Sciurus carolinensis) belongs to Rodentia, Sciuridae, Sciurus in taxomony. Popularly,Squirrels is uaually named grey squirrel or huigouzi. It is an important species with highlyeconomic values. The squirrels is important to dispersal of Korean pines' seeds.Today, exsitu conservation is mostly used to protect wild animals. Because of the limitedhabitat condition, most animals have to be bred in the cages or enclosure. Many behaviors havebeen restricted to exhibit.In this paper, from February of 2006 to June of 2006 in SongShudao of SunIsland in Harbin,observed the foraging behavior of squirrel, and presented an ethogram comprised of 5behauiors. Make the bred compare with the wild about the forging, and constitute the regressionequations of fodder area and microhabit environmental factors.Recent years, with the development of biology, more and more subjects have linked withmolecular biology technology. Molecular Scatology is a newly developed biology technology toextracting DNA from faecal sample, the faecal DNA can be used for research wild animalsinformation of nucleus. Molecular Scatology is a new technology of molecular ecology.In this experiment, the squirrel faeces were launched into DNA extracting. Faece DNAextraction was used the GuSCN/silica method. In order to get the best result, many experimentalparameters were tested. The PCR reactions were used to amplify the unalterable segments of SRYgene. According to the difference of the PCR result, the male and the female can be identified. Sothat, the proportion of male and female of the population in this area can be estimated. TheProducts of PCR were also cloned and sequenced. By the analysis of Blast, there are a lot of insertsand absence in the sequence, this result maybe relate with the ropier DNA.Main research results as follows:1. In the breeding conditions, the foraging behaviors of squirrel have changed a lot, especially,in the behavior structure. There are significant differences between the breeding squirrelsand the wild squirrels in territorial behavior, guarding behavior and hoarding behavior byt-test. These behaviors of breeding are all lower than the wild in both the frequency andlength of time. The lack of Environment factors and human interference, result the declinein the ability to deal with adverse circumstances and Natural Enemies.2. The GuSCN/silica method can extract DNA from faecal sample, and PCR reaction also canidentify male and female from the faecal DNA. The segments of SRY and SOX9 gene also can be gotten3. The proportion of male and female of the population in this area is:male ((?)):female (♀)=59/27. Too much males led the squirrels can't form a self-sustaining population. So theSunIsland need more wild squirrel every year...