Abstract:

The Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) is listed as a First Class species in the National Key Protected Wild Animals in China, and assessed as Near Threatened (NT) and Endangered (EN) by IUCN Red List and China Species Red List, respectively. Once widely distributed from East to Southeast Asia, the Asiatic golden cat inhabits diverse habitats ranging from lowland rainforests to montane coniferous forests and subalpine rhododendron forests, whereas its habitat selection preference remains poorly understood. In this research we determined the habitat selection strategy of this species in the montane forest ecosystem in Southwest China. We collected the occurrence data (292 independent detections at 117 sites) of the Asiatic golden cat through camera-trapping surveys from 2016 - 2019 in Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve in Gansu Province, and constructed a MaxEnt model with 7 environmental variables (altitude, aspect, slope, distance to river, land use type, distance to road, distance to residents) to predict its suitable habitats in the reserve. The results showed that the suitable habitats were estimated as 1 045.90 km² in the reserve, yet separated into the northern and southern parts by natural and anthropocentric barriers including the Bailongjiang River, 212 National Highway and the residential area along the low valley. The model response curves showed that the Asiatic golden cat prefers the evergreen coniferous forests close to rivers, at an elevation of around 2 400 m. The results indicated that, the wide river and anthropogenic impacts (e.g. roads) are possibly key factors driving the fragmentation status of the Asiatic golden cat’s habitat at the landscape scale. Future studies shall further examine the impacts of different types of human disturbance on Asiatic golden cats, and explore their basic ecology including diet composition, activity rhythm, population status and dynamics by integrating multiple methods.

Key words: Minshan Mountains, Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii), Camera-trapping, Habitat, MaxEnt, Species distribution model

摘要：

金猫 (Catopuma temminckii) 是我国一级重点保护野生动物，在世界自然保护联盟 (IUCN) 物种红色名录和中国物种红色名录中分别被评估为近危 (NT) 和濒危 (EN)，野外种群状况不明。金猫分布在东亚至东南亚的热带与亚热带森林生态系统中，栖息地类型多样，从低地雨林到山地针叶林和亚高山杜鹃林都有分布，但其栖息地选择的研究仍较为缺乏。甘肃白水江国家级自然保护区地处金猫的分布区北缘，为了深入了解该物种在山地森林生态系统中的栖息地选择策略，本研究汇总了2016—2019年白水江自然保护区红外相机调查中的金猫记录 (共计292次独立探测，117个记录点位)，结合海拔、坡向、坡度、距河流距离、土地利用类型、距公路距离和距居民点距离7个环境变量，使用最大熵模型 (MaxEnt) 预测白水江自然保护区内该物种适宜栖息地的分布情况。结果表明，在白水江自然保护区中，模型预测的金猫适宜栖息地面积为1 045.90 km²，主要分布在保护区南部各保护站管理片区的核心区、北部红土河片区和碧口片区相接部分核心区，南北两区域之间被白龙江和212国道及大面积人居点隔断。模型响应曲线显示，保护区内的金猫倾向于选择靠近河流远离道路的区域，在海拔2 400 m附近分布概率最高，与模型预测出的最适土地利用类型常绿针叶林区域重合。根据研究结果，制约金猫适宜栖息地面积并导致分布区域片段化的主要因素除了天然河流，还有道路等人为活动。未来我们会更深入地探究不同类型人类干扰对金猫的影响，并进一步通过多种方法，探究该地区金猫的食性组成、活动节律、种群数量及其动态变化趋势等生态学基础问题。

关键词: 岷山山脉, 金猫, 红外相机, 栖息地, MaxEnt, 物种分布模型