Home range size and habitat use of the blue-crowned laughingthrush during the breeding season.

Tao Liu,Yachang Cheng,Fumin Lei,Weiwei Zhang,Yongtao Xu,Bai Mo,Jinze Shi

doi:10.7717/peerj.8785

Abstract

The home range size and habitat use of the blue-crowned laughingthrush (Garrulax courtoisi, hereafter BCLT), a critically endangered, subtropical, cooperative-breeding bird species in southeast China, were studied during its breeding period using radio telemetry at different sites during 3 consecutive years (2016–18, from May to June of each year). A total of 17 birds (12 males, four females, and one of unknown sex) were tagged, and a total 1515 locations (mean ± se = 89.12 ± 11.42) were obtained over 54 days of tracking. The average 100% minimum convex polygon (MCP) home range size was 10.05 ± 1.17 ha, and the estimated KDE core area (fiexed kernel density estimator, KDE) size was 7.84 ± 1.18 ha. According to the Wilcoxon rank sum tests, both the 100% MCP and KDE core area size of males did not significantly differ from those of females. There were no significant differences in the 100% MCP or KDE core area sizes of the three breeding sites. The available habitats in the breeding sites included water areas, shrubs, grass plots, woodland, residential areas, vegetable field, farmland, and sandy beaches; among them, only woodland was significantly preferred by BCLTs. Woodland (average use ratio was 45.86 ± 1.74%) was strongly preferred by BCLTs for nesting, foraging and roosting. Shrubs/grass plots (24.72 ± 3.39%) and vegetable plots (11.80 ± 1.83%) were used relatively more often than the other habitats, except woodland, since shrubs were always used as perches, and vegetable plots were rich in food resources. Vertically, the canopy layer was used most often from April to June, but it was used most in May when the birds were hatching and brooding. This result indicates that BCLT is predominantly active in the upper strata during the breeding season. In addition, broadleaved trees within or adjacent to villages were important activity areas for the breeding birds; protection and management measures should be increased in these areas.

Highlights

A home range is an area that usually occurs around a home site and is traversed by an individual animal during its normal activities, such as food gathering, mating, and caringKonstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS) URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-2-l6iicg8q7e8n4How to cite this article Liu T, Xu Y, Mo B, Shi J, Cheng Y, Zhang W, Lei F. 2020
Planted Fengshui forests are the main breeding areas of the BCLT in the villages. These patches are small in area and isolated from each other. 13 breeding sites were found in total on in Wuyuan (WW Zhang et al, 2019, unpublished data); 3 of these breeding sites that host large and stable breeding groups were chosen for home range study
After testing for normality of the distribution, the differences in home range size (100% minimum convex polygon (MCP) and 95% KDE), estimated core area size, between the two sexes, as well as the available habitat area and actual utilization area were analysed by t-tests to evaluate the habitat selection in BCLTs (Hough & Dieter, 2009); Wilcoxon rank sums tests were used if the data were not normally distributed

Summary

Introduction

A home range is an area that usually occurs around a home site and is traversed by an individual animal during its normal activities, such as food gathering, mating, and caringKonstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS) URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-2-l6iicg8q7e8n4How to cite this article Liu T, Xu Y, Mo B, Shi J, Cheng Y, Zhang W, Lei F. 2020. A home range is an area that usually occurs around a home site and is traversed by an individual animal during its normal activities, such as food gathering, mating, and caring. It provides an available space for the animals and allows it to achieve optimal fitness in the wild (Burt, 1943; Krebs & Davies, 1997; Kernohan, Gitzen & Millspaugh, 2001). Habitat refers to a distinctive set of physical environmental factors that a species uses for its survival and reproduction, providing food, shelter, nesting locations and mating sites (Reunanen, Monkkonen & Nikula, 2002; Hall, Krausman & Morrison, 1997). The study of habitat use patterns involves the description of the actual distribution of individuals across habitat types (Hutto, 1985)

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