大兴安岭汗马保护区原麝 冬季采食资源可获得性分析.

From February to March 2022, we carried out a field investigation and fecal sample collection of Siberian musk deer (Moschus moschiferus) in Hanma National Nature Reserve, Greater Khingan Mountains, Inner Mongolia. A total of 36 suspected fresh feces of Siberian musk deer were collected, and 33 of the total samples were identified by molecular biological methods. We collected 14 species of edible plants of Siberian musk deer and determined the content of macronutrition and micro-nutrition of edible plants through food analysis. The food availability and nutrition content of edible plants were quantified to explore the food consumption and food resource availability of Siberian musk deer in winter. The results showed that there were differences in composing proportion of different types of food and food availability. Lichens (account for 50. 65%) were the major food of musk deer in winter and availability of food in the environment was not the main factor determining the proportion of food composition. In winter, Siberian musk deer first ingests herbaceous plants with high carbohydrate and Na content from the environment, and then selectively feeds on shrubs (with short arbor included) with high energy, protein and fat content, in order to achieve the balance of nutrients and meet specific nutritional requirements. The transformation-based redundancy analysis (tb-RDA) showed that there was significant difference in nutrient supply and food composition between shrubs (with short arbor included) and herbals of the grazing plants of Siberian musk deer in winter habitat, and total structural carbohydrate (TSC) and total energy (GE) of plants in the habitat significantly affected the food composition of Siberian musk deer in winter. The results indicated that the availability of grazing plants and the distribution of nutrients and energy were important for the selection of grazing strategies of Siberian musk deer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]