羚牛防御行为的观察

1995年8月到1996年8月对陕西佛坪自然保护区境内的72群次羚牛(独牛31只次, 羚牛群41次) 的防御行为进行了观察。羚牛的防御行为包括发现、警觉、示警、御敌4种方式。羚牛通过视觉、嗅觉和听觉发现异常情况, 但其听觉更为敏锐。羚牛十分警觉, 稍有异常就会进入警觉状态, 警觉行为持续的时间为18.26±18.08 s。所有的羚牛个体均能通过声音和动作向同伴进行示警, 但3龄以下的个体发出的示警行为往往不能得到重视。御敌行为包括聚集、威吓、护幼、攻击、逃跑。逃跑是羚牛躲避敌害的主要手段, 在72群次中逃跑的羚牛占95.8%。羚牛逃跑时往往进行长距离的迁移并具有分群的现象, 但仍会返回原地。群体的大小对羚牛的分群行为有影响, 群体越大, 分群逃跑的可能性也越大。羚牛具有明显的护幼行为, 当群体中有幼仔时羚牛的攻击性增大。独牛攻击人的可能性要比群牛大。

OBSERVATIONS ON DEFENDING BEHAVIORS OF THE GOLDEN TAKIN

Observations on defending behaviors of golden takin (Budorcas tax icolor) were conducted whenever it is possible in the Foping National Natural Reserve in the Shaanxi Province located in 33°32′～ 33°43′N , 107°40′～ 107°55′E。Four basic ways of defending，behaviors were recorded, in general detecting, alerting, alarming, and defending, from 31 solitary and 41 groups of takins encountered in the field from August 1995 to August 1996. Takins detect dangers from their visual, olfactory, and auditory sen se, but they much more relay on their hearing ability comparing to visual and olfactory sense (28 vs.12) since they inhab it in the forests. The golden takins are very sensitive to any unusual sounds and object ives and show an alert ing behavior in w h ich they stand still and erect their ears. Duration of alert ing behavior was 18126±18108 s (n= 34). All individuals can make a strong noise, sound like“fu- - ”, from their nose andöor make an action to deliver alarm signals when they encounter enemies, but alarm s from calves, yearlings,and two year subadults are often ignored by others with in the samegroup. Defending behavior is composed of 5 specific behaviors, getting closer, threat, attack, antipredation, and flight. Among 72 cases of encountering takins in the field, 69of them are running away. Takins w ill sometimes leave their home range for a while (from a few hours to 22 days) and travel as long as 5 kilometers about when they are threatened, but they will come back after. Group splitting can be ob served if the group is formed by more than 10 individuals when they take flight. The possibilities of group splitting will be increase as the group size getting larger. Takins will show an antipredation behavior if calves are in the groups when they are threatened in the field. The solitary takin is more dangerous than those in group.