Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas  

作　　者：Meng Wang Yong-Gang Nie Ronald R.Swaisgood Wei Wei Wen-Liang Zhou Ze-Jun Zhang Gui-Ming Wang Fu-Wen Wei 

机构地区：[1]Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology,Institute of Zoology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China [2]University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China [3]Giant Panda Research,San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research,Escondido,California 92027,USA [4]Department of Wildlife,Fisheries and Aquaculture,Mississippi State University,Mississippi 39762,USA

出　　处：《Zoological Research》2023年第2期341-348,共8页动物学研究（英文）

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31821001);Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB3100000)。

摘　　要：A critical function of animal movement is to maximize access to essential resources in temporally fluctuating and spatially heterogeneous environments.Seasonally mediated resource fluctuations may influence animal movements,enabling them to track changing resource distributions,resulting in annual migration patterns.The conservation-dependent giant panda(Ailuropoda melanoleuca) displays seasonal movement patterns;however,the key factor driving these seasonal migration patterns remains poorly understood.Here,we used GPS tracking collars to monitor the movements of six giant pandas over a 12-year period across different elevations,and performed statistical analysis of seasonal migration directions,routes,habitat revisitation,home range overlap,first arrival events,and stability.Our results revealed a compelling pattern of seasonal migrations that facilitated the ability of the pandas to forage at the appropriate time and place to maximize nutritional intake.Our results indicated that pandas utilize spatial memory to locate reliable food resources,as evidenced by their annual return to the same or similar winter and summer home ranges and the consistently maintained percentage of home range overlap.These novel insights into giant panda foraging and movement ecology not only enhance our understanding of its ability to adapt to nutritionally poor dietary resources but also provide important information for the development of resource utilization-based protection and management strategies.

关 键 词：Giant panda Seasonal migration Home range Foraging ecology Spatial memory 

分 类 号：Q958[生物学—动物学]