The Grooming Behavior Of Pere David’s Deer

Pere David’s deer originated from China. In million years they have experienced prosperity, decline, endanger to extinct, discovered by world, reintroduction to China, rejuvenation. Grooming is the first line of defense against ectoparasites for wild mammals. In this essay we focus on two kind of grooming behaviors: anti-ectoparasite grooming behavior(including oral grooming, scratching behavior);biting insect repelling behavior. We focus on these two kinds of grooming behavior.Two models (stimulus-driven model and programmed grooming model) were proposed to explain grooming patterns of ungulates in previous studies. Upon a recent report on grooming behavior of Pere David’s deer, we further examined two more factors, social rank and food availability, which might influence grooming behavior of Pere David’s deer. Harem masters, who usually have a higher level of testosterone, are predicted to groom less than bachelors during the rutting season. But we did not find any difference in rate of grooming behavior between the harem master and bachelors. It was probably due to the late rutting season when the testosterone levels have fallen down.Food supplemental might affect grooming behavior since released foraging pressure would provide much more space for other behaviors such as grooming. However, we did not find an effect of food availability, probably due to an increase of vigilance instead of grooming in the pavilion population. Our results suggest that more exploration are needed such as changing observe time and excluding the interference of visitors.In the Chapter four, we explored factors affecting insect-avoidance behavior of Pere David’s deer. According the "stimulus-driven model", we examined three predictions:1) according to biting insects life history, in its active season, the rate of Pere David’s deer’s tail-switching will be higher; 2) Role of tail length:the longer the tail, the higher efficiency for repelling biting insects, and the lower tail-switching rate; 3) vigilance principle:in rutting season, adult male individuals will have lower tail-switching rate. The results indicate that the tail-switching behavior of Pere David’s deer follows "stimulus-driven model", with increasingly activity of biting insects, the rate of Pere David’s deer’s tail-switching behavior will be more frequent; the rate of tail swapping of adult individuals is lower than fawns’, it is possible that the tail length of adult is longer, resulting in high efficiency of biting insect repelling, lower rate of tail swapping. In rutting season we did not find any significant difference in male and female of their rate of tail swapping; in addition, we found that rainy day will affect the biting insects activities, decrease the rate of tail swapping. Pere David’s deer living in open habitat will swap tail less. Also deer seek to reduce biting insect harassment by lying down to reducing exposed skin surface and attractants, these will result lower rate of tail swapping. It also plays a positive role in effectively promoting protection work of Pere David’s deer. Can different tail length in mammals with similar function reflect difference of their habitat, it is worth further exploring.These studies will help us to a comprehensive understanding of Pere David’s deer’s habits. With better understanding of grooming behavior, we can improve the work of disease prevention and retreatment in the reserve. Moreover, these studies on grooming behavior of Pere David’s deer are science popularization materials on wildlife conservation, also plays a positive role in protection of animal and environment.