Abstract:

Aims: Understanding the activity patterns, range, and suitable habitats distribution of Mongolian wild ass (Equus hemionus) is essential for assessing its survival strategies in response to environmental changes, and provide scientific basis for formulating the development of effective protection measures for the Equus hemionus in candidate area of Xinjiang’s Kalamaili National Park. 

Methods: In this study, we used camera trapping to survey water resource utilization patterns of Equus hemionus during summer season (June to August) from 2021 to 2023 in candidate area of Kalamaili National Park. Meanwhile, we studied the kernel activity range of six rescue released Mongolian wild ass fitted with GPS satellite collars, tracking them from 2022 to 2024, in candidate area of Kalamaili National Park. Finally, we combined camera trapping and GPS satellite date, and used the BIOMOD2 model to carry out the suitable habitat’s distribution of species during the summer season, and evaluated conservated gap within the candidate area of National Park. 

Results: The results showed that: (1) we obtained 5, 596 independent detections of Equus hemionus at water resource during summer season. Among them, 2,825 independent detections were recorded during the daytime, 2,212 at nocturnal, 459 in the morning and 500 at nightfall. (2) Equus hemionus exhibited random usage of nocturnal (w_i = 1.32), diurnal (w_i= 0.94), morning (w_i = 0.98) and nightfall (w_i = 1.07) time periods at water sites; the activity index at nocturnal was slightly higher than in the three periods, with a peak activity period occurring between 23:00 and 04:00, while activity levels were relatively lower during the morning and nightfall periods; (3) the 50% kernel activity range spanned 4.98 to 162.18 km², with a mean of 76.34 ± 69.36 km²; the 95% kernel activity range form 27.67–2,117.72 km² with a mean of 892.95 ± 908.91 km²; (4) based on BIOMOD2 platform models, the suitable habitat area for Equus hemionus in candidate area of Kalamaili National Park during the summer was 1.94 × 10⁴ km² with 76.97% of the suitable habitat within candidate area of national park boundaries. 

Conclusion: Our study has preliminarily obtained the water resource utilization patterns, activity range and suitable habitat distribution of Equus hemionus in candidate area of Kalamaili National Park. These findings enrich our understanding of behavioral ecology, and provide scientific basis for guiding the candidate area of national park in developing conservation measures for the protection of endangered species and their habitats.

Key words: Equus hemionus, camera trapping, GPS collar, species distribution model, protection gap