Artificial Rearing Sub-Mature Grus Japonensis Winter And Summer Behavior Research

This experiment researched winter behavior of artificial rearing sub-mature Grus japonensis aiming to analyze and discuss the rule and adaptation of winter behavior of the sub-mature Grus japonensis under different living condition in order to reveal the wintering strategies of it, and understanding insufficient of behavioral expression of the sub-mature population under captivity condition through the difference comparison; Through the r esearch on the summer behavior, we refined out the abnormal behavior types in the process of building behavior spectrum aiming to analyze the impact of different factors on their behavior under existing rearing. In order to improve its ability to adapt to the wild environment we can put forward to the reasonable suggestions of welfare breeding to reduce the incidence of abnormal behavior of sub-mature Grus japonensis and promote the expression of normal behavior making its behavior to express more close to natural wild red-crowned cranes, so that ensure them can adapt to the wild environment after the wild release to security through the winter.The behavior of the artificial rearing sub-mature Grus japonensis of Heilongjiang Zhalong Nature Reserve were studied with Focal sampling and Instantaneous sampling during November 2014 to March 2015 and 2015 July 15 to August 5. Research objects included captive 1 and 2 years old sub-mature Grus japonensis and semi-captive 1 year old sub-mature Grus japonensis. The results as below:(1) The captive sub-mature Grus japonensis wintering period are mainly composed of feeding(34.14%), followed by standing behavior(15.77%); There were two feeding peaks, one in the early and the other in the late wintering stages, and one standing peak in the middle wintering stage; The results of two-way ANOVA revealed that each behavior of wintering were significantly influenced by temperature, while age only significantly influenced playing behavior. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the behaviors of walking and feeding were significantly positively correlated with temperature, while standing and resting were significantly negatively correlated with it, and playing behavior significantly positively related to age. These suggest ed that the mainly behaviors of captive sub-mature Grus japonensis are feeding and walking as temperature rise during wintering and when temperature declines are standing and resting(2) The major behaviors of semi-captive sub-mature Grus japonensis were feeding and walking during wintering period, which accounted for 40.49% and 19.69% respectively, showing that the feeding behavior were the highest throughout the over-wintering stage. The results of two-way ANOVA of the 1 year old captive and semi-captive revealed that the behavior of standing, resting, walking, maintenance, feeding, vigilance, others and conflicting were significantly influenced by temperature. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the behaviors of standing and resting were significantly positively correlated with temperature, while the behaviors of walking, feeding and vigilance were significantly negatively correlated with temperature. Partial correlation analysis showed that the time budget of Grus japonensis during winter was influenced by temperature solely, which didn’t interfere by environment factor. The behavior of standing, resting, walking, maintenance, feeding, vigilance, others and conflicting were significantly influenced by environment factor, the behavior of standing, resting, maintenance, others and conflicting of the captive sub-mature G.rus japonensis were higher than semi-captive sub-mature G.rus japonensis, meanwhile walking, feeding and vigilance were less than them.(3) The major normal behavior of summer of the captive sub-mature Grus japonensis was maintenance which accounted for 25.98% that was fluctuated with human activity, the major abnormal behavior was pacing which accounted for 7.03%, performance for larger differences in behavior half an hour of before and after the flying time; one-way ANOVA showed that the diurnal time budget of summer behaviors among different time of a day had significantly differences; the results of two-way ANOVA revealed that age and flying frequency only significantly effected head-nodding behavior of captive sub-mature Grus japonensis; Mann-Whitney U test showed walking、pacing、cage-scratching、vigilance of the half an hour before fixed flying time were significantly higher than after flying time.The research result showed that:(1) Captive 13, 14 years sub-mature Grus japonensis adopted the same strategy during wintering period, the main behavior of them is feeding in early and late winter, in order to store energy; the main behavior is persistent behavior(standing&resting) in middle winter, in order to reduce energy consumption. The main behavior of semi-captive sub-mature Grus japonensis during the entire wintering period is feeding which is store energy. One of the reasons for different winter strategies of artificial rearing sub-mature Grus japonensis is food on zhalong nature reserve..(2) Fixed flying time significantly influenced abnormal behavior of captive sub-mature Grus japonensis in summer.(3) The existing rearing against the sub-mature Grus japonensis welfare, suggesting develop the welfare breeding, such as changing the red-crowned food-hurling pattern, make its captivity feeding behavior close to natural foraging behavior.