Study On Habitat Selection,activity Pattern And Group Pattern Of Water Deer Using Camera-traps In Baishan Musk Deer Natural Reserve

The water deer(Hydropotes inermis)is a small and primitive cervid.mainly distribute in Jiangsu.Zhejiang.Jiangxi.Hunan and Hubei province of China.The water deer was rediscovered in Baishan Musk Deer National Nature Reserve in Jilin province in recent year,and it's the first that water deer was discovered in the Northeast China Region after 1850s.However,both the population and distribution of water deer in Jilin province were pretty limited,and its biology and ecology features are eager for studying,which is aim at figure out how does the deer interact with its habitats to meet their requirements for survival and reproduction.Moreover,understood those information,scientific strategies could be taken to protect their population and its habitats.Filed study was carried out at Baishan Musk Deer Nature Reserve in Jilin province from May 2018 to September 2019.infrared triggered cameras technology and quadrat sampling method were applied to research the habitat selection,activity pattern and group pattern of water deer.Chi-square test was used to analyze nonnumeric habitat factors,the vegetation type,dominant plant,slope and slope direction,while the numeric habitats factors,the distance to human disturbance,distance to water,herbage coverage,hiding cover,elevation,height of dominant herbage and slope degree were analyzed using Independent-samples T test and Mann-Whitney U test.Bedsides,resource selection function model was applied to analyze the effects of different habitat factors on the habitat selection of water deer.The main results were as follows:1.The water deer would like to select grassland with closer distance to water,higher herbage coverage.higher height of dominant herbage and gentle slope at sunny and middle slope with dominated of Artemisia carvifolia in spring.The correctly predicted rate of Resource Selection Function model is 94.9%.2.The water deer would like to select grassland with higher herbage coverage,higher hiding cover,higher height of dominant herbage and gentle slope at sunny and middle slope with dominated of Artemisia carvifolia in summer.The correctly predicted rate of Resource Selection Function model is 94.4%.3.The water deer would like to select grassland with higher herbage coverage,higher hiding cover,higher height of dominant herbage and gentle slope at sunny and middle slope with dominated of Artemisia carvifolia and Atrmisia argyi in autumn.The correctly predicted rate of Resource Selection Function model is 88.5%.4.The water deer would like to select grassland with closer distance to water,higher herbage coverage and gentle slope and dominated of artemisia carvifolia and Atrmisia argyi in winter.The correctly predicted rate of Resource Selection Function model is 82.4%.5.The water deer would like to select grassland at sunny and middle slope with dominated of Artemisia carvifolia and Atrmisia argyi in spring,ummer,autumn and winter.Non-numeric factors count a high percentage in the four seasons.The distance to human disturbance is largest in spring than other seasons,and the distance to water is smallest in summer than other seasons.The correctly predicted rate of Resource Selection Function model of the four seasons are larger than 80%.6.54 times activity of water were recorded in winter and spring of 2017-2019 in Baishan Musk Deer Nature Reserve.The activity times of water deer is highest at 16:00 and 21:00-23:00,and it is weakest around 7:00 and 13:00.7.54 groups and 59 individuals of water were recorded in winter and spring of 2017-2019 in Baishan Musk Deer Nature Reserve.There were 16 solitary male groups(29.63%),16 individuals;33 solitary female groups(61.11%),33 individuals;and 5 female-male groups(9.26%),10 individuals.