Daily Activity Rhythms And Behavior Difference Of Captive Chinese Water Deer(Hydropotes Inermis) In Lactation

Chinese water deer(Hydropotes inermis) is classified in Artiodactyla, family Cervidae. It is listed in the second grade nationally protected animals of china, and ranked as LR/nt in IUCN red data book. Its have wide distribution in china, as a consequence of habitat loss and human hunting, this species is rapidly declining in distribution range and quantity. At present, it is mainly limited to Zhoushan Islands, the Poyang Lake region and Jiangsu coastal beach area. In recent years, the economic value of Chinese water deer being gradually discovered, and the technology of artificial breeding being matured, which is becoming a good balance means of the deer population protection and the people’s needs. Researches in the behavior of farmed deer are only found in the UK population and the Shanghai population, but the deer behavior of large-scale breeding is very few, especially lack of research on their night activity with difference of male and female.Daily activity rhythm and time budget of captive Chinese water deer in lactation were observed with the method of instantaneous scan sampling at the Fuyang Chinese water deer farm, Hangzhou of China. Effectively reveal the status of captive deer individuals and groups, provide basic information for farmed deer. at the same time, according to the research results, suggestions for the feeding and management and the living taking milk of young river deer. There are some results as follow:1. The time budge: Male deer spent an average of(43.49±2.48) % of the daily resting. Moving, feeding, standing, alerting, ruminating, auto-grooming, social behaviors and urinating accounted on average for(18.40±1.92)%,(12.76±0.76)%,(8.87±1.80)%,(5.19±1.76)%,(4.47±1.03)%,(4.45±0.95)%,(1.90±0.52)% and(0.49±0.16)% of the activity budgets, respectively. Female deer spent an average of(59.01±2.93) % of the daily resting. Moving, feeding, auto~grooming, ruminating, standing, social behaviors and urinating accounted on average for(13.91±2.39)%,(10.60±0.74)%,(7.76±1.10)%,(2.84±0.66)%,(2.72±1.01)%,(1.53±0.59)%,(1.26±0.54)% and(0.36±0.22)% of the activity budgets, respectively.2. The activity rhythm: The daily activity rhythms of female Chinese water deer showed two feeding and ruminating peaks, and three moving, standing and auto-grooming peaks with the resting and social behavior multi peaks. Two feeding peaks were from 6:00 to 7:00 and from 16:00 to 17:00, but ruminating peak were delayed 1~2 hours behind feeding peak. Male deer showed two moving、feeding and auto-grooming peaks, and lots of resting、standing、alerting、social behavior peaks with the characteristics of ruminating one peak.3. Circadian comparison: Diurnal resting time of female Chinese water deer was very significantly lower than that of the night, diurnal auto-grooming time was significantly lower than the night, while the time of diurnal walking, feeding, ruminating, alert and social behavior was very significantly higher than the night, and the two standing behavior time had no significant difference. Diurnal resting time and auto-grooming time of male Chinese water deer was very significantly lower than that of the night, alerting time and standing time had no significant difference, while the time of diurnal moving, feeding, ruminating, social behaviors was very significantly higher than the night.4. Difference of male and female: The time of female deer’s feeding, Moving, standing, alerting, ruminating was very significantly lower than that of the male deer, and social behaviors time was significantly lower than the male deer, while the time of female deer’s resting and auto-grooming was very significantly higher than the male deer. The female Chinese water deer’s activity rhythms of feeding and ruminating had no significant difference with male deer, Moving and social behaviors are significant difference with male deer, while the activity rhythms of alerting, resting, auto-grooming, standing are very significant difference with male deer.5. Correlation analysis: For female deer, resting-feeding and resting-moving were very significantly negative correlation, but significantly positive correlation was between feeding and moving. For male deer, resting-feeding was very significantly negative correlation, feeding-moving was significantly positive correlation, resting and ruminating 、resting and auto-grooming were all show significantly positive correlation.