Daytime Behavior Patterns of Captive South China Tiger with Seasonal Differences

Authors: Fengwei Z, Bingxuan X, Xianfu Z and Qingbin L*

DOI: 10.23880/izab-16000398

Volume 5, Issue 5

Abstract

The daytime behavior of South China tiger was studied in Hangzhou Safari Park from March 2019 to February 2021. The south China tiger was watched and recorded by instantaneous scanning method. The ethogram of the South China tiger was defined according to the actual observation. During the observation, 6 times were recorded every hour, and the interval of each recording was 5-10 min. The results showed that the dominant behaviors of South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyesis) (behavior frequency ≥ 10%) were moving (29.73±4.96%), lateral lying (20.14±3.66%), prone lying (16.44±11.56) and watching (13.67±4.33%); The common behaviors (behavior frequency between 1% and 10%) were embellishing (5.85±0.81%), turning over (2.43±0.57%), marking (2.44±0.84%), feeding (2.21±1.04%), playing (1.33±0.96%), defecation (1.18±0.46%), vocalizing (1.14±0.44%) and grabbing (1.01±0.98%); The rare behaviors (behavior frequency < 1%) were sniffing (0.71±0.37%), holding objects (0.64±0.64%), cunnilingus (0.54±0.81%), supine (0.36±0.29%), straddling (0.11±0.22%) and yawning (0.10±0.20%). Therefore, South China tiger has the problem of long rest time, short moving and feeding time. In the long run, it will lead to some psychological and physiological problems, so it may be one of the effective ways to improve this situation by increasing the feeding difficulty of South China tiger. Principal component analysis showed that the behavior pattern of South China tiger was mainly formed by marking, lateral lying, prone lying, watching, embellishing and moving. Owe to oestrus and physiological factors, the marking behavior time in spring and summer was significantly higher than that in autumn and winter. Related to climate, the lateral lying behavior time in autumn and winter was very significantly higher than that in spring and summer, the prone lying behavior time in spring and summer was very significantly higher than that in autumn and winter, so it is speculated that moderate interference is conducive to improve the behavior diversity of South China tiger. The time of embellishing behavior in spring was significantly higher than that in the other three seasons, which was related to hair changing. The time of watching behavior has very significantly different among autumn-winter, spring and summer, while the time of moving behavior in summer was very significantly lower than that in the other three seasons, indicating that certain measures need to be taken to appropriately reduce the time of stereotyped behavior in autumn, winter and spring.

Keywords: South China Tiger; Seasonal Difference; Estrus; Physiological Factor; Behavioral Diversity

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