Habitat assessment of sika deer（Cervus Nippon）in the Taohongling National Nature Reserve in Jiangxi Province, China.

Abstract

The South China subspecies of sika deer (Cervus nippon) has been listed as an endangered species in the IUCN Red Data List, and is also assigned to Protection Class I in the List of Wildlife under Special State Protection as designated by the Chinese State Council. In recent years, sika deer have formed several relatively isolated populations and are distributed in parts of Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. Taohongling National Nature Reserve is located in Pengze County, Jiangxi Province of China, which has been designated for the protection of wild southern sika deer. The reserve is 12 500 hm 2 in area, of which the Core Protected Zone is 2 670 hm 2 , the Buffer Zone is 1 830 hm 2 and the Experimental Zone is 8 000 hm 2. In the Experimental Zone, there is a considerable area of agricultural land with a high human population density. Highways surround the eastern, northern, and western boundaries of the nature reserve, while the southern border of the reserve is marked by valleys and creeks. The last estimated population of sika deer in the nature reserve was 365, which was thought to be the largest population of this sika deer subspecies. However, after strict protection for 30 years, the vegetation in the nature reserve has changed into evergreen broadleaf forests which is the local climax vegetation.

Diet composition and interspecific niche of Taohongling Sika deer (Cervus nippon kopschi) and its sympatric Reeve’s muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) and Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis) in winter (Animalia, Mammalia)

“…Based on OTUs sequences alignment in the NCBI database, the diets of sika deer, Reeve’s muntjac, and Chinese hare includes 203 genera in 90 families, 203 genera in 95 families, and 163 genera in 75 families, respectively ( Editorial Committee of FRPS 2004 ; Jiang 2009 ; see Suppl. material 1 ).…”

“…Yao et al (2010) found that the sika deer in TNNR mainly eat Homonoia riparia , Fallopia multiflora , Lespedeza bicolor , Pueraria montana , and Vicia faba , and other species, and then especially fed on young leaves and shoots ( Li et al 2014 ). Compared with our study, the dominant forages in the feces of sika deer were Rubus chingii , Loropetalum chinense , Eurya japonica , Camellia japonica , Euonymus grandiflorus , and Phyllostachys edulis in winter; these are all Chinese medicinal herbs, which ensure the prevention of various diseases throughout the life cycle of sika deer ( Yao et al 2010 ; Ye 2015 ).…”

Interspecific association of sika deer in terrestrial animal communities of Liancheng National Nature Reserve, China

“…3a, the main activity area of sika deer is the southwestern part of the LNNR; the vegetation form in the area covers deciduous broad-leaved forest, temperate mixed coniferous forest, cold-temperate mixed coniferous forest, and cold-temperate coniferous forest. Comparing to the suitable habitat of sika deer in other distribution areas (Guo 2000;Ma et al 2004;Fu 2006;McCullough et al 2009;Takatsuki 2009;Li et al 2014Li et al , 2015Cheng et al 2020;Yuan et al 2020), these vegetation forms are suitable for sika deer and is widely spread within the natural reserve (Fig. 3a).…”

“…There were six subspecies of wild sika deer (Cervus nippon) in China (Guo 2000); three are extant but with limited numbers distributed in Northeast China (Yang et al 2018;Zhou 2018), Northern Sichuan and Southern Gansu provinces (Guo 2000;Cheng et al 2020), Northern Zhejiang Province (Meng & Xu 2003;Yu et al 2006;Cheng et al 2018;Guo et al 2020;Yuan et al 2020), Southern Anhui, the border between Anhui and Jiangsu provinces (Xu et al 1998;Wu et al 2003), and Pengze County in Jiangxi Province (Fu et al 2006;Li 2013;Li et al 2014Li et al , 2015Zhou et al 2019). Because the distribution areas are small and isolated, communication between populations is difficult, and the number of sika deer is decreasing.…”

“…In addition to the genetic characteristics of the species, the successful settlement of an alien species in a new habitat is related to the suitability of the habitat and the pressure of predation and competition from other species (Cronk & Fuller 1995;Elton 2020). As found out by Cheng et al (2020), McCullough et al (2009), Guo (2000), Li et al (2014Li et al ( , 2015, Ma et al (2004), Takatsuki (2009), and Yuan et al (2020), sika deer can get used to many kinds of habitat, including grassland, bushland, broadleaved deciduous forest, and mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest. In LNNR, there are temperate grass and forb meadows, deciduous broad-leaved scrubs, evergreen broad-leaved scrubs, cold-temperate coniferous forests, temperate coniferous forests, cold-temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests, temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests, and deciduous broad-leaved forests.…”