Population Survey And Habitat Suitability Evaluation Of Hume’s Pheasant(syrmaticus Humiae)in Qinghua Reserve

The Hume’s pheasant is a national protected species.In recent years,over-exploitation of forest resources has led to the loss and fragmentation of Hume’s pheasant habitat.The combined effects of habitat destruction and environmental factors have caused the population of Hume’s pheasant to continue to decline and become endangered.This paper was conducted to investigated the population size and habitat suitability of the Hume’s pheasant in the Qinghua Reserve,and studied the habitat suitability of the Hume’s pheasant at the scale of Yunnan province.The aim was to find out the population size of the Hume’s pheasant in the reserve,the habitat requirements of the Hume’s pheasant at different scales and the spatial distribution pattern of suitable habitat,to clarified the distribution range and characteristics of its habitat,and then to analyzed the causes of population decline and endangerment of the species,and to provided a scientific basis for formulating reasonable conservation measures.The results were as follows:（1）In this study,the population of Hume’s pheasant in the reserve was surveyed by the sample line method,and designed 15 sample lines with a total length of 23 km,taking into account the topography of the reserve.A total of 3 Hume’s pheasants included 1 male and 2 females were found during a total of 90 sample line surveys among April to May2021 to July to August 2022.Two activity traces were found,which were abandoned nests and droppings after hatching.（2）Forty-two infrared cameras were set up in the reserve using random sampling method,and 882 independent valid photographs of Hume’s pheasant were collected during the study period,and the REM model was used to calculate the population size of Hume’s pheasant in the reserve.According to the model output,the standard deviation of the population density value was 0.27,and the population density was 9.20 pheasants/km²,with a small standard deviation and a narrow 95%confidence interval range of 0.18 to1.73,with a high degree of confidence.The population density of Hume’s pheasant in the reserve is 9.20±0.27 pheasants/km²,and the population size is 89 to 94 pheasants.（3）In this study,the MaxEnt model was used to predict the habitat of Hume’s pheasant and the accuracy of the model was verified using ROC and AUC.The mean AUC value for habitat prediction in the reserve was 0.952 with a standard deviation of0.017,indicating a good fit of the model and a high confidence in the prediction results.The analysis of the contributions of environmental variables based on Jackknife test,contribution percentages and replacement importance values showed that distance from roads,annual precipitation,driest seasonal precipitation,distance from settlements,normalized difference vegetation index（NDVI）and slope had the most significant effects on model gain,and the total contribution of these 6 environmental variables reached81.3%.Area statistics were obtained using Arc GIS,and the results showed that the area of the unsuitable zone was 7.524 km²,the area of the more suitable zone was 1.127 km²,and the area of the most suitable zone was 1.349 km^2,accounting for 75.24%,11.27%,and 13.49%of the total area of the protected area,respectively.（4）The mean AUC value of 0.922 and standard deviation value of 0.018 for habitat prediction in Yunnan province indicated that the MaxEnt model prediction results had high confidence.The results based on Jackknife test,contribution percentages and replacement importance values showed that the mean diurnal range,distance from roads,precipitation in the driest season,precipitation in the wettest season,distance from water sources and distance from settlements had the most significant influence on the model gain,and the total contribution of these 6 environmental factors was 71.9%.Using Arc GIS to count the area of different classes of habitats,the results showed that the area of unsuitable zone was 299,475 km²,the area of more suitable zone was 42,202 km²,and the area of most suitable zone was 52,367 km²,which accounted for 75.99%,10.71%and13.30%of the total area of Yunnan province,respectively.（5）Based on the results of MaxEnt model to evaluate the suitability of habitats at 2scales,the results showed that the habitat connectivity of protected areas was better,the fragmentation of suitable habitats was not high,the overall fragmentation of habitats in Yunnan province was high,mostly showing the distribution of isolated patches,and its suitable habitats are mainly distributed in the western,central and southern regions of Yunnan province.In summary,the population size of Hume’s pheasant in the reserve is 89 to 94.The habitat of Hume’s pheasant is mainly affected by vegetation,water,temperature,topography and disturbance factors,and the environmental factors were different at different scales,and the degree of habitat fragmentation is different at different scales,but the overall habitat fragmentation in the reserve is not high and the habitat quality is better.The overall fragmentation of habitats in Yunnan province is high,mostly in isolated patches,and the connectivity between patches is not strong,which makes it difficult for different populations of Hume’s pheasant to communicate with each other.