Food Resource Competition Of Giant Panda During The Bamboo Shoot Season

The Giant Panda(Ailuropoda melanoleuca)is an endemicspecies of Ailuropodain China,which is also regarded as flagship species for global biodiversity conservation.Protection and develop of population of giant panda have been widely concerned by biologists.Due to the low nutrient content of bamboo,the giant panda can only obtain limited nutritional benefits from it.Bamboo shoots with relatively high nourishment play an essential role in the reproduction and rearing process of giant panda.However,there are few studies on the foraging strategy of the giant pandas in the shooting duration and the competition of food resources among sympatric species.Began in March 2016,In this studythe giant panda in Qinling as the research object,aiming to explore the food resources competition among different species,analyze the effect of interspecific food competition to giant pandas and study the foraging strategies of giant pandas in this process and its biological significance by applying the direct observation of the foraging behavior and the regular monitoring of the bamboo shoots in the Shaanxi Foping national nature reserve.This study will be used as important basic information in wild giant panda protection and management.The main findings are as follows: 1.In the study area giant pandas forage the Bashania fargesii shoots in April to June,then with the lignification of Bashania fargesii shoots,giant pandas begin to migrate to high-altitude areas in mid-June in order to forage Fargesia qinlingensis shoots.There are some differences on the choice of foraging location of these two kinds of bamboo shoots,choice factors that rich in bamboos with larger diameter,higher height and better quality.At the same time,the relevant variables of the characteristics of bamboo on the selection,those with larger diameter and high height are favorable.These results suggest that the foraging strategies of giant pandas are similar to the other herbivores that they tend to maximize their own nutrition by selecting high-quality food resources in heterogeneous bamboo shoots patches.2.In the study area,we found the sympatric species of giant panda such as wild boar,takin,black bear,birds and insects both eat bamboo shoots at the shooting period.Among these species,wild boar had the largest influence towards giant panda's foraging behaviors because they foraging two kinds of the panda's favorite bambooshoots in a large number,while other species had little interference for the panda's foraging behavior.At the same time,there is no distinctive difference between wild boars and giant pandas in the food resources and micro-habitat,and difference on forage the number of bamboo shoots is not significant.Therefore,we speculate that the specialization adaptation of bamboo makes the giant pandas have a high foraging efficiency,so that they can achieve a competitive coexistence with wild boar when the bamboo resources is abundant.3.The first time combining with microbial selection and food resource utilization,this study,analyze and discuss the competition relationship between giant pandas and sympatric species in the shooting period.The research results not only help to understand competitive relationship and coexist mechanismbetween specialized species andomnivorousanimal,but also provide some basic information for the scientific protection and management of wild giant pandas.