Abstract
Understanding locomotor activity patterns would reveal key information about an animal's foraging strategy, energy budget and evolutionary adaptation. We studied the locomotor activity patterns of the takin (Budorcas taxicolor) in a temperate mountain region in China using GPS radio-collar technology from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015. Our research showed that takin had a bimodal crepuscular locomotor activity pattern, with an especially obvious movement peak at dusk. The takins showed significant seasonal differences in their movement rates, with the lowest movement rate in winter. The animals also showed sexual differences in their movement rates. In spring, the female movement rate was significantly higher than that of males during daytime, while during nighttime the movement rate of males was higher than that of females. The male movement rate was significantly higher than that of females in summer. The movement rate of the takins were correlated to microenvironment temperature and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in each season. These findings suggest that takin could adjust locomotor activity levels adapt to reproductive requirements, temperature variation and forage variability.
Highlights
Locomotor activity patterns of animals can be affected by various factors, such as ambient temperature and seasonal change [1,2,3,4], forage quantity and quality [2, 5], and sex and reproductive status [6,7,8]
We studied the locomotor activity patterns of the takin (Budorcas taxicolor) in a temperate mountain region in China using global positioning system (GPS) radio-collar technology from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015
Our research showed that takin had a bimodal crepuscular locomotor activity pattern, with an especially obvious movement peak at dusk
Summary
Locomotor activity patterns of animals can be affected by various factors, such as ambient temperature and seasonal change [1,2,3,4], forage quantity and quality [2, 5], and sex and reproductive status [6,7,8]. The daily photoperiod and thermoperiod vary with the season, which can influence variation in the physiology and behavior of herbivores [10,11,12]. Than adult females [19] This usually results in sexual differences in habitat and space use among takins [20, 21], which is a pattern seen in many other ungulate species [22]. We studied the locomotor activity of takins in a temperate mountain region using GPS radio collar technology. We predicted that (1) takins would show crepuscular locomotor activity peaks, and (2) seasonal and sexual differences in locomotor activity would be found in accordance with seasonal variations in the photoperiod and thermoperiod. We predicted that microenvironment temperature and available food resources would be correlated to locomotor activity because of seasonal altitudinal movements [30, 31]
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