Abstract
The question of whether large-scale disturbances, such as earthquakes, impact an animal’s behavior significantly is an important question, but one that is difficult to answer due to the unpredictability of these types of events. Here, we collected 323 GPS locations of four takin (Budorcas taxicolor tibetana) in 13 days before and after a powerful (8.0 magnitude) earthquake on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan Province, China. The movement during this period was compared to that of three of the same animals during a corresponding period in 2009 (April 30 to May 25) and a slightly later 2009 period based on the start of migration (May 6 to May 31). We found that home ranges reduced in size during each study period, due to the migration process, but with no discernable differences due to the earthquake. The takin also showed the same pattern of elevation change and linear travel distance during 2008 and 2009, indicating no detectable effect of the earthquake on spatial behavior of takin. These findings add to our knowledge of how animals respond to catastrophic natural events in the wild.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Zoo, National Geographic Society, Columbus Zoo, Potawatomi Zoo, Ocean Park Hong Kong, the Chinese Academy of Science (KSCX2-YW-Z-0959) and The Wilds. We thank Sheng Li, Xiao-Gen Liu, Li-Min Chen, Wen-Hu Ma, Zhong-Huai Zhang, Jun Yang, and all the other staff of Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve for their help when we worked there. We thank the Evan S. Blumer and Barbara Wolfe from The Wilds for their help to anaesthetize and collar the animals; and Yi Tao, Zhi-Gao Zeng, and Qiong Zhang for recommendations on the earlier manuscript. The authors appreciated Dr. Bram Van Moorter and Dr. Roel May for their valuable comments. All experimental procedures on animals were licensed by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and all animal work was approved by State Forestry Administration, People’s Republic of China.
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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11284-010-0778-z
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Ge, BM., Guan, TP., Powell, D. et al. Effects of an earthquake on wildlife behavior: a case study of takin (Budorcas taxicolor) in Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve, China. Ecol Res 26, 217–223 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-010-0759-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-010-0759-2