Effects of water quality on the reproductive behavior and capacity of Andrias davidianus under tourism disturbance.

Abstract

Water quality under tourism disturbance was simulated through controlling the water intake of the ecological breeding ponds of Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus, CGS). Both the reproductive behavior (oviposition and parental care) and capacity (relative egg production, fertilizing rate of eggs, and hatching rate of fertilized eggs) of CGS were examined using a real-time infrared digital monitoring system. The relationships among reproductive behavior, capacity, and the corresponding parameters of water quality were analyzed, to understand how water quality under tourism disturbance would affect the reproductive behavior and capacity of CGS. The examined oviposition behavior and capacity of CGS showed no variation in general, but the parental care behavior such as tail fanning and agitation time of the male CGS were prolonged significantly in the groups under tourism disturbance. Such prolonged behaviors would help increase the content of dissolved oxygen (DO) to meet the high demands of DO during embryonic development of CGS. In addition, the overall hatching time of fertilized eggs was increased significantly under disturbance conditions when it compared with the control, which would ensure the overall hatching rate among these comparative groups unaffected. In summary, the prolongations of some reproductive behavior (tail fanning and agitation of the male CGS and the development time of fertilized egg) would be a kind of positive actions of CGS in response to the changes of water quality resulted from tourism disturbance.