Periodic Habitat Utilization And Its Driving Factors Of North China Leopard

The temporal characteristics of animal habitat utilization of animals has always been one of the basic researches in the field of ecological protection and research,and it is an important embodiment of animal survival strategy.North China leopards,the only species of leopards subspecies living in China,mainly distributed in north China,are the top species in the forest ecosystem in north China.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the utilization of the activity time characteristics in the habitat of the North China leopard for the conservation of the population and habitat restoration of the north China leopard.In this study,automatic camera monitoring was conducted at 128 sites in Taihang Mountain Macaque Nature Reserve,Manghe Nature Reserve and Tieqiao Mountain Nature Reserve from 2018 to 2020,with a total of 36,255 camera days.There were 64 spots where the North China leopard was detected.The temporal characteristics of north China leopards were visualized by wavelet analysis to reveal the temporal patterns of habitat utilization of north China leopards.At the same time,the driving effects of landscape structure factors,ungulate prey and human disturbance on the activity cycle of North China leopards were explored,and logistic regression models were established for periodic habitat utilization of leopards of different scales.The purpose of this study was to reveal the activity patterns of habitat utilization on a time scale,and provide important reference for population conservation and habitat restoration of the North China leopard.The results are as follows:1.The time series of habitat utilization of North China leopards showed periodicness at 19 of the 64 monitored sites,with the longest period being 32 days and the shortest period being 5days.2.The periodicity of habitat utilization of North China leopards varies significantly with the seasons,with the longest period in summer,the shortest in summer,and the weak periodicity in autumn.3.Environmental factors,such as NDVI,mean altitude and distance to river,had significant effects on the periodicity of habitat utilization at all scales.With the increase of scale,NDVI became the main driving factor for the periodic habitat utilization of North China leopard.The higher the vegetation coverage,the higher the probability of periodic habitat utilization.With the increase of distance from river and average altitude,the probability of periodic habitat utilization decreased.4.Ungulate prey(roe deer and wild boar)significantly affected the periodic habitat utilization of North China leopard.With the increase of relative abundance index of roe deer and wild boar,the probability of periodic habitat utilization of North China leopard also increased.5.Among the anthropogenic disturbance factors,cattle and distance to farmland are the factors that affect the habitat of periodic utilization of North China leopard,and there are significant effects at all scales.With the increase of cattle relative abundance index and distance from farmland,the probability of habitat periodic utilization also increased,and became the main driving factor of habitat periodic utilization with the decrease of cattle size.