Feeding Site Selection Of Crested Ibis Nipponia Nippon

Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon is one of the most endangered species in the world and ranked in the first class of national key protected animal. With the increasingly population of Crested Ibis in recent years, the utilization of habitat has changed.This is the first use of the logistic regression to modelling the habitat selection of wild Crested Ibis population in Hanzhong Crested Ibis National Nature Reserve. The study period covers three different periods of the annual activity cycle of Crested Ibis, which is wintering, breeding and non-breeding season.108Crested Ibis feeding site quadrat and96controlled trials were surveyed. The logistic regression model was built for the three periods.The result of this study show that the most significant factor of feeding site selection of the Crested Ibis during wintering season are the degree of human disturbance and the vegetation type nearby. Crested Ibis tend to choose the feeding site with less human disturbance and more vegetation cover. Correctly classified ratio of feeding site selection model can be91.65%during this period.There are four environment factors, including elevation, strength of degree of human disturbance, depth of water and softness soil, together determining Crested Ibis’s feeding site selection in breeding season. The crested ibis tend to choose higher elevations and less human disturbance, shallow soft mud to seek food. Correctly classified ratio of feeding site selection model can be93.2%.The the feeding site selection determined by water depth and the proportion of open water in non-breeding season. Crested ibis tend to choose shallow water area of the larger open water for foraging. Correctly classified ratio of feeding site selection model can be86.6%.Overall, the logistic regression model make the proper ecological significant on crested ibis feeding site selection, and also show a good predictive power.Finally, it can be useful to point out several management suggestions to protect foraging site: to encourage to keep water of paddy fields in winter, to control the size of the gold washing industry, to reduce pesticide use and to combat criminals who poison aquatic animals.