Effects Of Human Disturbance On Habitat Utilization Of Himalayan Marmots (Marmota Himalayana)

With the increasing impact of human activities on the environment,wild animals are increasingly affected by human activities.Exploring how wildlife respond to the impact of human activities can provide us with the basis for formulatie corresponding protection strategies.Habitat use refers to the way that wild animals use all resources within their range of activities to maintain the survival and reproduction of populations or individuals.The habitat use characteristics of different wild animals will change under the influence of human activities to adapt to the impact of human activities.The Himalayan Marmot(Marmota himalayana)is a burrowing rodent mainly distributed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.It lives in a family and is a natural host for plague.Therefore,it is very important to understand what changes have occurred in all aspects of the Himalayan marmot under the influence of human activities,in order to maintain the ecological security of the plateau and human health.In order to explore the impact of human activities on the habitat use of Himalayan marmots,this study was conducted from April to October 2018 and April to October 2019.Three Himalayan Marmot populations near Duoma Village,Banyou Township,Zoige County were used as the research object to explore how the habitat use characteristics of Himalayan Marmot differentiated under the influence of human activities By comparing and analyzing the number of breeding pairs of different populations,the number of burrows used,burrow location and nest site selection characteristics,we found that:(1)Three populations of Marmota himalayana living in the vicinity of Duoma village have been affected by non-lethal and different intensity of human activities.The three populations can be clearly divided into natural populations that are almost unaffected by human activities,weak interference populations that are affected by weaker human activities and strong interference populations that are affected by stronger human activities.(2)With the increase of human activities,the shorter the distance between the breeding caves,and the marmots of the disturbed population will dig more burrows,which will lead to the increase of the number of burrows owned by each breeding pair and all burrows in the habitat,and then lead to the decrease of the distance between all caves with the increase of human activities.The reason for the differentiation of these populations may be the enhancement of human activities.The affected marmots will burrow more caves to protect themselves in case of danger,and more burrows lead to shorter cave spacing,so that they can have a shorter escape distance in case of danger and better protect themselves.In addition,the nest site selection characteristics of the local marmot are also differentiated:with the enhancement of human activities,the distance between the nest site and the road is gradually reduced.Although the size differentiation is obvious,the strong and weak disturbance populations tend to nest on the mound higher than the ground to obtain a better vision and better ability to guard against natural enemies.Although the weak disturbed populations do not prefer to choose to nest on the mound,their landform features are relatively high,even on flat land,they can have a good view and so they do not prefer to choose to nest on the mound.Our results show that the habitat utilization characteristics of Marmota himalayana,which lives near the village of Duoma,have changed significantly under the condition of sustained non fatal human activities.In general,with the increase of human activities in different populations,the density of caves in the habitat becomes larger,and the distance between caves becomes shorter,which is conducive to avoiding predation.The mound in the habitat is a kind of scarce nesting resources.The natural population will choose to nest on the mound.Although it is closer to the road and smaller in size,the strong disturbance population will choose to nest on the mound to obtain better warning vision and higher drainage efficiency.