Abstract:

From May 2014 to April 2019, we conducted camera-trapping surveys in the Qianjiangyuan National Park, Zhejiang Province. We divided the park into a grid containing 267 1 km × 1 km plots, with 3 fixed survey stations (> 300 m apart from each other) in each plot. One camera trap was set up in each plot and rotated among the stations within the plot every four months. In the Gutianshan section of the park, the cameras were running for 14 rotations from 2014-2019. The survey started in Hetian, Qixi and Changhong in 2018, and the cameras were rotated once in Qixi and twice in Hetian and Changhong. With a survey effort of 140,413 camera-days from 741 stations in 253 grids, we obtained 268,833 pictures/videos resulting in 74,368 independent detections. The survey recorded 21 wild mammalian and 72 avian species, as well as 5 domestic animal species. Among the species, two (black muntjac Muntiacus crinifrons and Elliot’s pheasant Syrmaticus ellioti) are Class I, and seventeen are Class II national protected animals, accounting for 20.4% of total recorded wild species. Five species are red-listed by the IUCN as Vulnerable and four as Near Threatened, accounting for 9.7% of the total recorded wild species. One species is red-listed as Endangered, nine as Vulnerable and ten as Near Threatened by Red list of China’s vertebrates, accounting for 21.5% of the total recorded wild species. The most detected mammal species was Reeve’s muntjac Muntiacus reevesi, and the most detected bird species was silver pheasant Lophura nycthemera. Our results provide reliable baseline information on the species composition, their spatial distribution, and relative abundance of mammals and birds in the Qianjiangyuan National Park.

Key words: Qianjiangyuan National Park, biodiversity inventory, camera-trapping, wildlife monitoring, baseline survey