Mammals Diversity,Distribution And Activity Rhythm In Taiyang River Provincial Nature Reserve,Yunnan

Monitoring is an effective way to assess the progress of biodiversity conservation.Mammals are key indicators of the conservation,management and evaluation of biodiversity.Infrared camera trapping has been increasingly used in the survey and monitoring of mammals.Taiyang River Provincial Nature Reserve is located in the transition area of tropical zone and subtropical zone,which is one of the richest biodiversity reserve in Yunnan Province.It has extremely high research significance.The record of mammal species has not been updated for many years in the reserve,which has affected the assessment of the current status of mammal resources.In order to investigate and evaluate the mammals diversity,distribution and activity rhythm in Taiyang River Nature Reserve,the infrared cameras and the line transect method as well as interview are used to research the mammals in the reserve.Forty infrared cameras were deployed systematically on the basis of a 1×1 km~2 grid from April 8th,2017 to April 30th,2019.These monitoring habitats are distributed into seven types(monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest,monsoon evergreen deciduous broad-leaved forest,coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest,bamboo forest,shrub,tropical seasonal rain forest,mountain rain forest)whose altitude is from 975 m to 1579m.Through the survey of 27,051 camera days,a total of 3,278 independent and effective pictures of mammals were collected.We set 42 realistic line transects(the average length of each line-transect was 9.025 km)in the reserve.We collected 72samples by interviewing local residents during July 15th to December 6th,2019.The main findings are as follows:1.Catalogue of mammal speciesThey are classified into 27 wild mammal species,belonging to 6 orders and 15families.Among these species,two species are of the first class national protected animals in the country,whose names are northern pig-tailed macaque(Macaca leonina)and Asian elephant(Elephas maximus).And the former northern pig-tailed macaque is a new record for the reserve.Besides,as many as 10 recorded species are the second class national protected animals in the country,including rhesus macaque(Macaca mulatta),dhole(Cuon alpinus),Asian black bear(Ursus thibetanus),yellow-throated marten(Martes flavigula),large Indian civet(Viverra zibetha),small Indian civet(Viverricula indica),spotted linsang(Prionodon pardicolor),sambar(Cervus equinus),Chinese serow(Capricornis milneedwardsii)and black giant squirrel(Ratufa bicolor).In addition,17 species of mammals were recorded by line transect survey and 26species of mammals were recorded by interview method.Based on infrared cameras,line transect method and interview,there are 30 species of large and medium-sized mammals distributing in the reserve for the moment.2.Mammal diversity and distributionThe genus-family index(G-F index)of mammal diversity was 0.36,The Simpson index was 0.64 and Shannon-Weiner index was 1.48.The relative abundance index(RAI)result showed that Red muntjac(Muntiacus vaginalis,RAI=53.14)and wild boar(Sus scrofa,RAI=25.81)possess the highest RAIs in the study.The RAI of rhesus macaque,sambar and Asian black bear is from 1 to 5.The RAI of northern pig-tailed macaque,Asian elephant and Asian black bear is the lowest(all<1).In the different types of habitat,there are the most recorded species for average from per camera in monsoon evergreen deciduous broad-leaved forest(7.44±1.22species).There are the most species recorded of average each per camera in the different elevations at altitude of 1400~1500 m(8.31±0.84 species).Comparing diversity of mammal in the different types of habitat,there were no significant variations of mammal diversity and distribution(species:?~2=5.284,df=6,P>0.05;Shannon-Weiner index:?~2=2.756,df=6,P>0.05),but there was significant variation of Pielou evenness index(?~2=12.546,df=6,P<0.05).Comparing diversity of mammal in different elevations,there were also no significant variations of mammal diversity and distribution(species:?~2=6.431,df=6,P>0.05;Shannon-Weiner index:?~2=2.348,df=6,P>0.05;Pielou evenness index:?~2=11.489,df=7,P>0.05).3.Activity rhythm of mammalsThe analysis of activity rhythm reveals that different levels of competitions and a moderate overlap exist among the same order or family.Such as,sambar and red muntjac(overlap coefficient?=0.84,P=0.04),sambar and wild boar(?=0.60,P<0.01),red muntjac and wild boar(?=0.69,P<0.01).This research indicates the current situation of the large-sized and medium-sized mammal resource in the Taiyang River Provincial Nature Reserve,which provides a reliable foundation for the formulation and implemention of protection plan,and further scientific research and environmental education in the reserve.The result shows that infrared camera method is an effective tool for mammal investigation in subtropical forest and traditional line transect method and interview survey method also have an assisted effect.It contributes to obtain more comprehensive composition of mammal species by applying of several survey methods comprehensively.