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

Zhang, Yongjun; Qing, Cao; Rubenstein, Daniel I.; Zang, Sen; Songer, Melissa; Leimgruber, Peter; Chu, Hongjun; Cao, Jie; Li, Kai; Hu, Defu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132094

Cited by 31 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Secondly, only specific environmental conditions allow the preservation of soft tissues for more than fifty thousand years. Most of the animals preserved as frozen carcasses probably died near water bodies where they looked for water or fresh and productive vegetation (Haynes 1991, Kaczensky et al 2008, Zhang et al 2015, and thermokarst processes enabled their preservation (Vereshchagin and Tomirdiaro 1999). Therefore, the high similarity of our palaeobotanical data with wet to mesic vegetation types can be partly caused by the fact that shortly before they died, the studied animals grazed in wet areas, while the surrounding landscape could have been much drier.…”

Section: Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitats of Pleistocene megaherbivores reconstructed from the frozen fauna remains

et al. 2020

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The Late Pleistocene landscape in northern Eurasia and North America was inhabited by a specific megafaunal complex, which largely disappeared during the Pleistocene/ Holocene transition. Vegetation changes are considered as one of the factors responsible for these extinctions, but the structure and composition of the Pleistocene vegetation are still poorly known. Here we complement previous studies by comparing the taxonomic composition of the plant remains found in the gastrointestinal tracts of the frozen carcasses of Pleistocene megaherbivores with the species composition of the current Siberian vegetation. We compiled a dataset of palaeobotanical records from frozen individuals of Pleistocene megaherbivores found in northern Siberia and Beringia and dated to the period from more than 50 kyr BP to 9 kyr BP. We also compiled a dataset of vegetation plots from several regions in Siberia. We analysed the similarity in taxonomic composition of plants between these two datasets using a novel method that accounts for variable taxonomic resolution in palaeobotanical data. For most megaherbivore individuals, plant remains in their gastrointestinal tracts corresponded to tundra, forest and mire vegetation, while they showed low similarity to steppe. This pattern was relatively constant over time, showing no remarkable differences between the Last Glacial Maximum and the periods before and afterwards. This suggests that during the Upper Pleistocene, a mosaic of mesic and wet vegetation types such as tundra with patches of forests and mires was common in northern Siberia and Beringia. In contrast, the steppe was rare to absent in the landscape or underused by the megaherbivores as a pasture since they found enough food in the widespread mesic and wet habitats with more productive vegetation.

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Section: Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitats of Pleistocene megaherbivores reconstructed from the frozen fauna remains

et al. 2020

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“…and Carex spp.) (Zhang et al, 2015). Before driven into captivity, Stipa, Pamirian, Artemisia and Anabasis are the major food plant genera of Przewalski's horses (Meng, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gut Microbiomes of Endangered Przewalski’s Horse Populations in Short- and Long-Term Captivity: Implication for Species Reintroduction Based on the Soft-Release Strategy

Tang

Srivathsan

et al. 2020

Front. Microbiol.

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“…Khulan normally require 12-15 litres of water per day, and up to 24 litres on hot days. The low water content in their plant resources probably further increases their need to drink 28,[30][31][32] . In the Mongolian Gobi, khulan roam over ranges of thousands of square kilometres and their movements are among the largest reported for terrestrial mammals [33][34][35] .…”

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confidence: 99%

Hidden treasure of the Gobi: understanding how water limits range use of khulan in the Mongolian Gobi

Payne

Buuveibaatar

Bowler

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Most large herbivores in arid landscapes need to drink which constrains their movements and makes them vulnerable to disturbance. Asiatic wild ass or khulan (Equus hemionus) were widespread and abundant throughout the arid landscapes of Central Asia and Mongolia, but have undergone dramatic population declines and range constrictions; denying khulan access to water is believed to have played a major role. Mongolia's South Gobi Region now houses the world largest remaining khulan population, but is undergoing rapid land use changes. Khulan water use is poorly understood, largely due to the difficulty of mapping waterpoints used by khulan throughout their exceptionally large ranges, prone to high variations in precipitation. We used the special movement path characteristics of GpS tagged khulan to show us where water is located. We identified 367 waterpoints, 53 of which were of population importance, characterized the seasonal and circadian use, and identified snow cover as the most important variable predicting khulan visits during the non-growing season, and vegetation greenness during the growing season. our results provide a data layer to help guide a regional khulan conservation strategy, allow predictions for other part of the global khulan range, and illustrates the overall importance of waterpoints for dryland herbivores.Wildlife adapted to drylands have developed specific strategies to minimize water loss and optimize water recycling through anatomical, physiological, and behavioural adaptations 1,2 . Although some large herbivores can extract enough water from their food 3 , most need to drink regularly, and the availability of water strongly influences their daily, seasonal, or annual movements 4-7 . In arid environments standing water from precipitation is typically absent, thus requiring large herbivores to regularly access waterpoints. Because waterpoints tend to be scarce and spatially explicit, they constitute areas where herbivores are particularly vulnerable to competition, disturbance, and predation 8-10 . Hence, understanding the factors affecting water use in space and time is a precondition for understanding movement strategies and habitat use of large herbivores in arid ecosystems.Water availability and access to water in the world's drylands is increasingly driven by human exploitation of water for agriculture, industry, and domestic use. Livestock grazing is typically constrained to pastures close to water, thereby often reducing water and pasture accessible to wildlife 8,[11][12][13][14] . Shared use of waterpoints harbours the risk of disease transmission between livestock and wildlife 15,16 . Finally, diversion of water for irrigation results in habitat conversion and when associated with fencing tends to block access to water by wildlife altogether. Actual or perceived competition with wild herbivores over water and nearby pastures often results in negative attitudes, facilitating retaliation actions including illegal killings particularly under drought conditions 17 . Identifying key ...

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

Cited by 31 publications

References 34 publications

Habitats of Pleistocene megaherbivores reconstructed from the frozen fauna remains

Habitats of Pleistocene megaherbivores reconstructed from the frozen fauna remains

Gut Microbiomes of Endangered Przewalski’s Horse Populations in Short- and Long-Term Captivity: Implication for Species Reintroduction Based on the Soft-Release Strategy

Hidden treasure of the Gobi: understanding how water limits range use of khulan in the Mongolian Gobi

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