Food Habits of Wolves (Canis lupus) during Summer and Autumn in the Mt.Kalamaili Ungulate Nature Reserve, Xinjiang
Animal feeding analysis can explore the animal habitat requirements,provide basic datafor the animals 'habitat evaluation,environmental capacity evaluation,interspecies relation and energy metabolism,etc research,provide theoretical foundation for the protection and management of wildlife.From June to November in 2012,we collected 278 scats from the Mt.Kalamaili Ungulate Nature Reserve (MKUNR) through Hint-based method,the linear intercept method,and so on,Xinjiang,China.Fecal analysis method was used to study the food composition of wolves during summer and autumn.The results revealed that,Equus hemionus and Gazella subgutturosa,as the region's major species of wild ungulates,had a low relative frequency of 1.94% and 3.10% in wolves food types.The reason of wolves preying little Equus hemionus and Gazella subgutturosa is due to ungulates populations re duced in the snow disaster in the spring of 2010 greatly.The relative frequency of Equus Przewalski preyed by wolves reached as high as 1.42%,and it shows that wolves have affected Equus Przewalski reintroducing to field as well.Plants,Gerbillidae and insects were the major food resources of wolves,accounting for 30.19%,19.35% and 13.55% respectively.There is no significant difference in wolves food types between summer and autumn (Pearson's x2 test,P =0.192,> 0.05;Likelihood Ratio x2 test,P =0.131,> 0.05).Wolf food niche breadth was narrow(Bsta =0.28).The research of wolves food habits helps to make clear the relationship between wolves and the wild ungulates especially Equus Przewalski reintroducing to field,to provide basic data of Equus Przewalski's protection management and monitoring.Meanwhile,it also can show the harm of wolves to livestock,so as to provide basic data to control the number of wolves in the reserve.