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Vigilance and defensive behavior of Asiatic wild asses

BI Junhuai, HU Defu, DING Ying, JIANG Zhigang,SI Xiaoyan   

  • Online:2008-03-13 Published:2008-07-07

蒙古野驴的警戒防御行为

毕俊怀, 胡德夫, 丁英, 蒋志刚, 司晓艳   

  1. 北京林业大学生命科学与技术学院,北京

Abstract: Vigilance and defensive behavior of Asiatic wild asses (Equus hemionus hemionus)was documented at the June to December 2004 and March to July 2006 using instantaneous scanning along the Sino-Mongolia border, Darhanmaoming Banner, Baotou (N 44°36' - 46°00', E 88°30' - 90°03') and the Natione Natural Preserve of Asiatic Wild Asses,Wulate Haloxylon Ammodendron (N 41°50' - 42°27', E 106°15' - 108°00'), Inner Mongolia, China. We documented 132 instances of behavior. Eight types of defensive behaviors associated with 16 kinds of body posture were recognized,including alert and searching, alarm, hesitation, threatening, escape, protecting young, emotionally inducement, and fighting between groups. We examined gender differences of daytime time allocation of vigilance behavior using an independent t test males spent more time in vigilance behavior than females. All group members delivered warning signals by posture, movement and vocalizing. Escape was the primary way to avoid enemy's attacks. Wild asses response distance was related to the type of vehicles that the researcher used,as well as vehicle velocity. We put forward a model describing the relationship between the response distance of Asiatic wild asses and the velocity of a threat. We also observed fierce fighting and attacking behavior within a group which led to the death of a sub-adult male.

Key words: Asiatic wild Ass (Equus hemionus hemionus), Defensive behavior, Escaping, Fighting, Vigilance behavior

摘要: 2004 年6 ~12 月和2005 年3 ~7 月,在内蒙古自治区包头市达尔罕茂明安联合旗中蒙边境地区和巴彦淖尔市乌拉特梭梭林—蒙古野驴国家级自然保护区,采用瞬时扫描取样法,观察了蒙古野驴的警戒防御行为,共观察到蒙古野驴132 群次。蒙古野驴的防御行为可分为警觉和发现、预警、矛盾(犹豫)、示威、逃跑、护幼、诱发和争斗8 种方式,观察记录到16 种体姿。用独立样本t-test 检验,对成体蒙古野驴雌雄个体昼间预警行为时间分配进行差异显著性检验,结果发现雄性昼间用于预警的时间明显高于雌性。群体中所有个体均能通过体姿、动作和声音发出示警信号,逃跑是蒙古野驴躲避敌害的主要方式。野外观察记录到94 次警戒防御行为。统计结果表明,蒙古野驴的安全距离与调查者所使用交通工具有关,并与交通工具的运动速度呈正相关,因此提出了一个描述蒙古野驴安全距离与威胁源运动速度之间关系的模型。蒙古野驴具有激烈的种内争斗和攻击行为,激烈的争斗甚至导致被攻击个体死亡。

关键词: 蒙古野驴, 防御行为, 示警, 逃跑, 争斗