Time budget and activity rhythm of wild Great Bustard in winter

Instantaneous scanning and focal animal sampling methods were used to record the behaviors of nine wild Great Bustards (Otis tarda) and their time budget from November 2004 to January 2005. The results indicated that foraging and resting time accounted for as high as 46.40% and 39.12%, respectively, while the rest of the behaviors, such as walking, alerting, preening and flying, only shared 6.83%, 2.03%, 2.64% and 1.84%, respectively. There were significant differences in foraging time, alert time and walking time between males and females (P < 0.05). The preening and flying were closely related to males (Pearson’s correlation, r = 0. 932), and it was similar for resting and walking in females (Pearson’s correlation, r = 0. 716). Resting occurred mainly at dawn and dusk, and foraging appeared mostly from 9:30 to 11:30 and from 14:30 to 16:30. Non-parameter testing demonstrates that time budget among resting, flying and others in two temperature intervals (> −5 °C and ⩽ −5 °C) was significantly different.