Abstract:
Habitat selection is an important research field in conservation biology, and its research results play a significant role in promoting conservation management. Wild training and release of animals is an important way to rejuvenate small populations, which can effectively improve the genetic diversity of small populations and reduce the risk of extinction. In this study, based on the project of wild and release of Moschus berezovskii in Liziping National Nature Reserve, Fisher's precision probability test, Shapiro-Wilke test, Mann-Whitney U test and principal component analysis (Principal Component Analysis, PCA) were used to compare and analyze the difference between habitat selection between wild period and released period. The result showed that there were significant differences in the selection of altitude, water distance, tree height and shrub height of Moschus berezovskii, which indicated the selections of the altitude was lower (1,892.00+29.87 m), the water distance was longer (72.39+5.73 m), the tree layer height and the shrub layer height were lower than before (18.24+2.39 m 2.40+0.22 m). However, there was no obvious difference in the selections of slope direction, slope position, slope gradient, arbor DBH, arbor canopy and shrub canopy (
P > 0.05). The results of principal component analysis showed that the first three principal components accounted for 71.91% of the data differences. Altitude factor (consist of arbor DBH, altitude and shrub height), heat factor (consist of water distance, tree canopy) and topography factor (consist of slope position) were the essential factors affecting the habitat selection of Moschus berezovskii during the release period. This research reported for the first time that captive Moschus berezovskii showed different habitat selections after wild training and released into the natural world. The results provided a scientific reference for improving and assisting wild training of Moschus berezovskii.