Biodiv Sci ›› 2007, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (4): 337-343.  DOI: 10.1360/biodiv.070109

• Editorial • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Seasonal change in ranging of Elliot’s pheasant and its determining fac-tors in Guanshan National Nature Reserve, Jiangxi

Yanpeng Xu1, Jiawen Zheng1,2, Ping Ding1*, Pingping Jiang1, Luyun Cai1, Xiaofeng Huang3, Xiaohua Yao4 , Xiangrong Xu4 , Zeping Yu4   

  1. 1 College of Life Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058
    2 College of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049
    3 Academy of Forestry in Jiangxi Province, Nanchang 330032
    4 Jiangxi Guanshan National Nature Reserve, Yichun 336000
  • Received:2007-04-10 Revised:2007-06-16 Online:2007-07-20 Published:2007-07-20

Abstract: From July 2005 to December 2006, to study the seasonal change in ranging of Elliot’s pheasants, we tracked five individuals using radio-tracking and GPS in Guanshan National Nature Reserve of Jiangxi Province. The results showed that Elliot’s pheasant occurred at altitudes between 400 and 600 m all the year, but the altitude of their home range varied with seasons: highest in summer and autumn, lower in spring and lowest in winter. The most likely reason that Elliot’s pheasants preferred to live at lower altitude in winter is to have access to water sources. In spring, summer and autumn, they tended to appear at higher altitude, correlated with the distance to forest edge, abundance of shrubs, their species richness and coverage, and ultimately related to the abundance of food and shelter.