Study On The Grazing Selectivity By Muntiacus Reeves In The Enclosure

By using the methods of direct observation of grazing, trace of grazing and microhistological analysis of fecal, researchers observed, measured and analyzed the Muntiacus reevesi in "Xing Ji Wild Animals Breeding Co., Ltd.",whose grazed-species, grazing-site, the maximum grazed-height, grazed-frequency and the relativity grazed-resource of main grazed- herbage. They calculated the food preference of every kinds of grazed- herbage with the digital quantity of grazed-frequency and relativity grazed-resource. According to the sample of the grazed-site, the researchers used the method of general nutrient analysis to measure the grazed-herbage's CP,EE,NFE,CF and CA, then analyzed the relativity of food preference and the nutrients content of the herbage.The results showed that, there were 87 species of herbage Muntiacus Reevesi grazed, 42 were herbaceous (accounted for 48.27%) and 45 were magnoliids (accounted for 51.73%). Among the main species of forage grazing by Muntiacus reevesi, there are 17 kinds of herbaceous and 23 kinds of magnoliids. Muntiacus reevesi had a strong selectivity to grazed-species, and the maximumis was 1.50, the minimum was 0.40. Muntiacus Reevesi also had a strong selectivity to the grazing-site: as for the herbaceous, they generally graze 1/2 the branches segment and the subsequent green leaves; and acoording to magnoliids, they generally graze the subsequent green leaves of 1/2 with segment and a small front-end branch tips. Maximum feeding height of an adult Muntiacus reevesi is 0.75m. There was a large gap among the grazed-resources: the maximum one in the herbal category was Imperata (30.09%), the minimum one was maackii (0.73%); the maximum one in the magnoliids was Camellia tree (16.61%), the minimum one was the wild hawthorn (0.73%). The content of CP in magnoliids was 12.42%, which was significantly higher than the herbal category (9.77%). And the content of EE in magnoliids (3.87%) was also higher than the herbal category (3.47%). The differences among CF, NFE and CA were not significant.By analyzing the relativity of both nutritional value of grazed-herbage and Muntiacus reevesi's grazing selectivity, the study showed that Muntiacus reevesi's choice to each kind of herbage was related mainly to the content of CP and EE. Both herbaceous and magnoliids, with the content of CP and EE increased, the food preferance was (significantly) enhanced. It revealed that, the nutrients content of grazed-herbage in the encloosure was insufficient to meet the nutrition requirement of Muntiacus reevesi, especially when the shortage of food resource.