Biodiv Sci

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Habitat characteristics of wild Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis)

Lusheng Wu1, Xiaobing Wu1, Hongxing Jiang2,3, Chaolin Wang4   

  1. 1 College of Life Sciences, Provincial Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Important Biological Resource, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000
    2 Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091
    3 National Wildlife Research and Development Center, State Forestry Administration, Beijing 100091
    4 Anhui Research Center for Chinese Alligator Reproduction, Xuanzhou 242034
  • Received:2004-10-08 Revised:2004-11-29 Online:2005-03-20 Published:2005-03-20
  • Contact: Xiaobing Wu

Abstract:

During 2002 and 2003, the habitat characteristics of wild Chinese alligator were studied in the National Nature Reserve for Chinese Alligator in the south of Anhui Province by collecting samples from among the 22 locations where wild Chinese alligator used to occur or occur currently. Eight ecological factors potentially related to alligator occurrence, i.e., shelter condition of bank, situation of islands, stability of water, pH value of water area, snail abundance, texture of soil, density of bamboo, and vegetation type, were measured according to data collected from each location. The habitat characteristics of wild Chinese alligator have been analyzed and studied with the methods of resource selection functions (RSF) and principal component analysis. The results showed that association of the above 8 factors to the survival of the wild Chinese alligator followed the following descending order: shelter condition of bank, pH value of water area, snail abundance, density of bamboo, stability of water, texture of soil, situation of islands and vegetation type, with the shelter condition of bank as the major factor (OR=13.628) and situation of islands and vegetation type as the least associated.