Study On Behavior Characteristics During Nursing Season And Human Face Recognition In Photographs Of Red Panda (Ailurus Fulgens)

Nursing season is the key period for the growth and development of animals,and nursing behavior is an important component of animals' breeding period.By observing the activity rhythms,time budget and nursing behaviors of endangered species during nursing season,we can have a better understanding of animals' utilization of energy and enhance the survival rate of the baby endangered species and improve its population.Besides,with the decreasing of habitats and expanding human activities in wild,animals are easy to keep in contact with humans,which would give rise to unpredictable effects.Red panda(Ailurus fulgens)is a beautiful species,with reddish-brown fur,long-shaggy tail,walking waddle because of its shorter front legs.Because of the destruction of the wild habitat,the population of red pandas dropped sharply in recent years,so plenty of countries began to build the artificial breeding base.Exploring the activity rhythms,time budget and nursing behaviors of captive red panda during nursing season,we can uncover the patterns of energy utilization and rules of management of red panda.In addition,captive red pandas have more opportunities to get close contact with humans,so the human face recognition in red panda is equally important.In order to investigate the activity rhythms,time budget and nursing behaviors of red pandas,we studied four female red pandas after giving birth to baby red pandas in one month period at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding from 2013 to 2016,using instantaneous scan sampling and all-occurrence recording methods.And also,we succeeded to train three adult red pandas to do the human face recognition experiment,using the two-way conditioned discrimination procedure from February to October in 2016.The main conclusions are as follows:1.We found that resting(58.32%±1.78%,n=148)is the main activity of red pandas during nursing season,followed by nursing behaviors(20.43%±2.39%,n= 148),exploring(6.89%±0.71%,n=148),moving(6.27%±0.88%,n=148),grooming(5.59%±0.69%,n=148)and feeding(2.49%±0.56%,n= 148).2.The average percent of nursing behaviors during one day is about 20%,except for 01:00-05:00 in the morning;Feeding behaviors occurred more frequently on 19:00-21:00 and 01:00 in the morning.As for the nursing behavior,Licking cub occurred the most frequently,reaching up to 70%,and followed by lactating,which is made up to 24%.Nursing behaviors had an extremely significant negative correlation to feeding and moving behaviors(P<0.01)and a significant negative correlation to grooming and resting behaviors(P<0.05);Moving behaviors had an extremely significant positive correlation to grooming and feeding behaviors(P<0.01).3.Lactating behaviors account for a higher proportion in per-nursing and post-nursing periods,weaker in mid-nursing periods.Frequencies of some behaviors,such as gazing at cub,olfactory cub and nibbling cub were higher in the first week after birth;The frequency of licking cub was higher in mid-nursing periods and moving cub account for a higher proportion in post-nursing periods.Besides,the frequency of licking cub(68.64%±3.02%)was the highest among all nursing behaviors and then lactating behaviors(23.45%±2.71%).4.Three red pandas performed above 50%chance level upon the two-way conditioned discrimination procedure(generalized linear models:estimate=0.46±0.02,t=29.66,df=3,P<0.001),even in the condition that hide the cues of human hairstyles and face contours,red panda continued to choose the familiar people at 99.9%in three consecutive sessions.5.As we excluded the influence of men's hairstyles and face contours,we continued to cover the white paper to block the eyes,and there was an obviously decrease of the correct rate of the discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar people in red panda than 50%chance level(generalized linear models:estimate=0.13±0.03,t=4.67,df=3,0.01<P=0.019<0.05).The individual mean correct choices and standard deviation of the third experiment for all three red pandas were calculated(Red Panda 1:0.67±0.20;Red Panda 2:0.61±0.17;Red Panda 3:0.59±0.18).It showed that men's eyes were very important cues for red panda to discriminate the familiar and unfamiliar people.6.Three red pandas chose the happy stimulus than 50%chance level(generalized linear models:estimate=0.31±0.01,t=26.43,df=3,P<0.001).The individual mean correct choices and standard deviation of happy stimulus for all three red pandas were calculated(Red Panda 1:0.80±0.28;Red Panda 2:0.82±0.17;Red Panda 3:0.83±0.15).The results indicated angry stimulus is negative stimulus to red pandas.