Seasonal diet of Khulan (Equidae) in Northern Xinjiang, China

Xu, Wenxuan; Xia, Canjun; Yang, Weikang; Blank, David A.; Qiao, Jing; Liu, Wei

doi:10.1080/11250003.2011.620635

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…[19] All three of these plant species are known to be important food plants for equids in the Dzungarian Gobi. [20,21] The climate of the Great Gobi B SPA is continental with long, cold winters and short, hot summers. The average annual rainfall is 100 mm with a peak during summer.…”

Section: Experimental Study Area In Mongoliamentioning

confidence: 99%

A protocol to correct for intra‐ and interspecific variation in tail hair growth to align isotope signatures of segmentally cut tail hair to a common time line

Šturm

Pukazhenthi

Reed

et al. 2015

Rapid Comm Mass Spectrometry

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RationaleIn recent years, segmental stable isotope analysis of hair has been a focus of research in animal dietary ecology and migration. To correctly assign tail hair segments to seasons or even Julian dates, information on tail hair growth rates is a key parameter, but is lacking for most species.MethodsWe (a) reviewed the literature on tail hair growth rates in mammals; b) made own measurements of three captive equid species; (c) measured δ2H, δ13C and δ15N values in sequentially cut tail hairs of three sympatric, free-ranging equids from the Mongolian Gobi, using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS); and (d) collected environmental background data on seasonal variation by measuring δ2H values in precipitation by IRMS and by compiling pasture productivity measured by remote sensing via the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).ResultsTail hair growth rates showed significant inter- and intra-specific variation making temporal alignment problematic. In the Mongolian Gobi, high seasonal variation of δ2H values in precipitation results in winter lows and summer highs of δ2H values of available water sources. In water-dependent equids, this seasonality is reflected in the isotope signatures of sequentially cut tails hairs.ConclusionsIn regions which are subject to strong seasonal patterns we suggest identifying key isotopes which show strong seasonal variation in the environment and can be expected to be reflected in the animal tissue. The known interval between the maxima and minima of these isotope values can then be used to correctly temporally align the segmental stable isotope signature for each individual animal. © 2015 The Authors. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Section: Experimental Study Area In Mongoliamentioning

confidence: 99%

A protocol to correct for intra‐ and interspecific variation in tail hair growth to align isotope signatures of segmentally cut tail hair to a common time line

Šturm

Pukazhenthi

Reed

et al. 2015

Rapid Comm Mass Spectrometry

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“…An arid continental climate is prevalent. Average annual temperature is 2°C, with an average of 20.5°C in July and −24.3°C in January [ 35 ]. Water is extremely limited.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Use Patterns of Sympatric Przewalski’s Horse and Khulan: Interspecific Comparison Reveals Niche Differences

et al. 2015

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Acquiring water is essential for all animals, but doing so is most challenging for desert-living animals. Recently Przewalski’s horse has been reintroduced to the desert area in China where the last wild surviving member of the species was seen before it vanished from China in the1960s. Its reintroduction placed it within the range of a close evolutionary relative, the con-generic Khulan. Determining whether or not these two species experience competition and whether or not such competition was responsible for the extinction of Przewalski’s horses in the wild over 50 years ago, requires identifying the fundamental and realized niches of both species. We remotely monitored the presence of both species at a variety of water points during the dry season in Kalamaili Nature Reserve, Xinjiang, China. Przewalski’s horses drank twice per day mostly during daylight hours at low salinity water sources while Khulans drank mostly at night usually at high salinity water points or those far from human residences. Spatial and temporal differences in water use enables coexistence, but suggest that Przewalski’s horses also restrict the actions of Khulan. Such differences in both the fundamental and realized niches were associated with differences in physiological tolerances for saline water and human activity as well as differences in aggression and dominance.

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“…Our results show that female argali fed on more forbs than male argali in warm season (43.31% vs. 36.02%). Similarly, it has been shown that when provided with greater nitrogen content, desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) (Fulbright et al, 2001) and Khulan (Equus hemionus hemionus) (Xu et al, 2012b) prefer forbs strongly. However, there are no significant differences between sexes in cold season.…”

Section: Seasonal Food Habitsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Micro-histological analysis of feces, which has been wildly used as for its reliability to estimate diet composition for grazing animals (Stewart, 1967;Korfhage, 1976;Stevens et al, 1987;Shrestha et al, 2005), was used to study the diets of the argali, domestic sheep, and goat. The initial treatment of fecal samples in the field refers to Wingard et al (2011) and Xu et al (2012b), drying in an area of good air circulation to prevent molding in the field. After preliminary drying, each pellet sample from each animal group was separately stored in different paper bags labeled with necessary information, such as date, time, GPS location, and the animal group.…”

Section: Dung Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet characteristics of wild sheep (Ovis ammon darwini) in the Mengluoke Mountains, Xinjiang, China

Blank

et al. 2018

J. Arid Land

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In most arid and semi-arid regions of the world, domestic livestock and native wildlife share pastures, and their competition for forage and habitat is thought to be a serious conservation issue. Moreover, unmanaged grazing by livestock can cause the population decline in wild ungulates. The diet of an animal species is a determining aspect of its ecological niche, and investigating its diet has been one of the initial steps in basic ecology study of a new species. To get an approximate understanding of the interspecific food relationships of argali (Ovis ammon darwini) between sexes, and sympatric domestic sheep and goats, we compared the diet compositions and diet-overlaps among these herbivores, i.e., male argali, female argali, domestic sheep, and domestic goats in the Mengluoke Mountains of Xinjiang, China by using micro-histological fecal analysis. Female argali, male argali, domestic sheep and domestic goat primarily consumed forbs (43.31%±4.86%), grass (36.02%±9.32%), forbs (41.01%±9.18%), and forbs (36.22%±10.61%), respectively in warm season. All these animals consumed mostly shrubs (female argali: 36.47%±7.56%; male argali: 47.28%±10.75%; domestic sheep: 40.46%±9.56%; and domestic goats: 42.88%±9.34%, respectively) in cold season. The diet-overlaps were relatively high among all species in cold season with values ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. Furthermore, Schoener's index measured between each possible pair of 4 herbivores increased from the warm season to the cold season. The results illustrate that the high degree of diet-overlap of argali and domestic livestock (sheep and goat) may pose a threat to the survival of the argali in cold season. From the viewpoint of rangeland management and conservation of the endangered argali, the numbers of domestic sheep and goats should be limited in cold season to reduce food competition.

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Seasonal diet of Khulan (Equidae) in Northern Xinjiang, China

Cited by 20 publications

References 25 publications

A protocol to correct for intra‐ and interspecific variation in tail hair growth to align isotope signatures of segmentally cut tail hair to a common time line

A protocol to correct for intra‐ and interspecific variation in tail hair growth to align isotope signatures of segmentally cut tail hair to a common time line

Water Use Patterns of Sympatric Przewalski’s Horse and Khulan: Interspecific Comparison Reveals Niche Differences

Diet characteristics of wild sheep (Ovis ammon darwini) in the Mengluoke Mountains, Xinjiang, China

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