Summer water source utilization patterns, activity range and suitable habitat distribution of Equus hemionus in Xinjiang Kalamaili National Park candidate area

doi:10.17520/biods.2024509

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: Understanding the activity patterns, range, and suitable habitat distribution of Equus hemionus is essential for assessing its survival strategies in response to environmental changes.

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 Kalamaili National Park candidate area. Meanwhile, we studied the kernel activity range of six rescue released Equus hemionus fitted with GPS satellite collars, tracking them from 2022 to 2024 in Kalamaili National Park candidate area. Finally, we combined camera trapping and GPS satellite data, and used the BIOMOD2 model to assess the suitable habitat distribution of species during the summer season, and evaluated the conservation gap within national park candidate area.

Results: The results showed that: (1) we obtained 5,996 independent detections of Equus hemionus at water resource during summer season. Among them, 2,825 independent-detections were recorded during the daytime, 2,212 in the nighttime, 459 in the morning and 500 at nightfall. (2) Equus hemionus exhibited random usage of water sites at nighttime (w_i= 1.32), daytime (w_i= 0.94), morning (w_i= 0.98) and nightfall (w_i= 1.07) in different time periods; the activity index at nighttime was slightly higher than in other 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 was 4.98-162.18 km², with a mean of 76.34 ± 69.36 km²; the 95% kernel activity range was 27.67-2,117.72 km² with a mean of 892.95 ± 908.91 km²; (4) based on BIOMOD2 models, the suitable habitat area for Equus hemionus in Kalamaili National Park candidate area during summer was 1.94 × 10⁴ km², with 76.97% of the suitable habitat within national park candidate area boundaries.

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

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

Jicai Li, Changliang Shao, Shuaishuai Gao, Jia Li. Summer water source utilization patterns, activity range and suitable habitat distribution of Equus hemionus in Xinjiang Kalamaili National Park candidate area[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2025, 33(7): 24509.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2024509

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2025/V33/I7/24509

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1 Camera trapping sites and Equus hemionus summer location in Xinjiang Kalamaili National Park candidate area

Table 1 GPS collar positioning points and activity range (95% K and 50% K) of Equus hemionus in Kalamaili National Park candidate area①

编号 ID	跟踪时间 Tracking time	工作天数 Working day	点位数量 No. of point	50% K活动范围 50% K activity range (km²)	95% K活动范围 95% K activity range (km²)
No. 01	2023/05/09-2024/09/18	498	4,416	162.18	2,117.73
No. 02	2022/03/12-2024/08/26	898	9,523	89.56	1,476.72
No. 03	2022/03/12-2022/06/11	91	122	153.37	1,489.01
No. 04	2022/03/12-2022/07/01	111	242	24.28	102.03
No. 05	2022/03/12-2023/12/01	629	1,642	4.98	27.67
No. 06	2022/03/12-2023/10/05	572	1,637	23.67	144.51

Fig. 2 Water resource utilization pattern of Equus hemionus during summer in Kalamaili National Park candidate area

Fig. 3 Activity range (95% K and 50% K) of Equus hemionus (No. 01-06) in Kalamaili National Park candidate area during summer

Fig. 4 Correlation analysis among environmental variables (a), comprehensive contribution to combine model (b), and accuracy evaluation of models (c) for Equus hemionus in Kalamaili National Park candidate area during summer. NPP, Net primary productivity; NDVI, Normalized difference vegetation index; Water, Distance to water sites; Ele, Elevation; Way, Distance to ways; Bio5, Max. temperature of warmest month; Bio10, Mean temperature of warmest quarter; Bio18, Precipitation of warmest month; ANN, Artificial neural network; CTA, Classification and regression tree analysis; FDA, Flexible discriminant analysis; GAM, Generalized addition model; GBM, Generalized boosted regression model; GLM, Generalized linear model; MARS, Multivariate adaptive regression splines; MAXENT, Maximum entropy model; RF, Random forest; SRE, Surface range envelope model; EM, Combined model; AUC, Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve; TSS, True skill statistic.

Fig. 5 Suitable habitat of Equus hemionus in Kalamaili National Park candidate area during summer

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