Journal Article

Giant panda foraging and movement patterns in response to bamboo shoot growth

Zhang, Zhizhong, Zhou, Xiaoping, Zhang, Hemin, Zhang, Mingchun, Li, Zhong, Zhang, Jindong, Hong, Mingsheng, Zhou, Shiqiang, Hull, Vanessa, Huang, Jinyan

2018

Overview

Diet plays a pivotal role in dictating behavioral patterns of herbivorous animals, particularly specialist species. The giant panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca ) is well-known as a bamboo specialist. In the present study, the response of giant pandas to spatiotemporal variation of bamboo shoots was explored using field surveys and GPS collar tracking. Results show the dynamics in panda-bamboo space-time relationships that have not been previously articulated. For instance, we found a higher bamboo stump height of foraged bamboo with increasing elevation, places where pandas foraged later in spring when bamboo shoots become more fibrous and woody. The time required for shoots to reach optimum height for foraging was significantly delayed as elevation increased, a pattern which corresponded with panda elevational migration patterns beginning from the lower elevational end of Fargesia robusta distribution and gradually shifting upward until the end of the shooting season. These results indicate that giant pandas can respond to spatiotemporal variation of bamboo resources, such as available shoots. Anthropogenic interference of low-elevation F. robusta habitat should be mitigated, and conservation attention and increased monitoring should be given to F. robusta areas at the low- and mid-elevation ranges, particularly in the spring shooting season.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Ailuropoda melanoleuca / Animals / Anthropogenic factors / Aquatic Pollution / Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution / Bamboo / bamboo shoots / bamboos / Biological Phenomena / China / Diet / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecological monitoring / Ecosystem / Ecotoxicology / Elevation / Environment / Environmental Chemistry / Environmental Health / Environmental Monitoring - methods / Environmental science / Fargesia / Fargesia robusta / Forage / foraging / Foraging habitats / Geographic Information Systems / Global positioning systems / GPS / habitats / herbivores / Herbivory - physiology / Migration / monitoring / Pandas / Poaceae - growth & development / Research Article / Seasons / Shoots / spatial variation / Spatio-Temporal Analysis / Spring / surveys / temporal variation / Ursidae - physiology / Waste Water Technology / Water Management / Water Pollution Control