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Behavioral time budget and diurnal rhythm of white-headed duck in Northwest China.

ZHAO Xu-mao1,2, MA Ming1**, ZHANG Tong1, ZHANG Jian-bo3   

  1. (1 Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011,  China; 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 3 Xinjiang Arts University, Urumqi 830011,  China)
  • Online:2013-09-10 Published:2013-09-10

Abstract: From July to October 2012, an investigation was conducted on the behaviors of whiteheaded duck (Oxyura leucocephala) in the Baihu Lake of Urumqi, Xinjiang Province of Northwest China. The main behaviors of the duck included alert, resting, swimming, flying, foraging, displaying, caring, maintenance, driving, masturbation, and others. The time that the ducks spent on different types of behaviors was in the order of foraging (48.90%), resting (23.32%), maintenance (12.85%), locomotion (9.48%), others (4.32%), and alert (2.13%). Among these behaviors, an obvious rhythm was observed in foraging, resting, and maintenance. The foraging behavior peaked at 7:00-9:00 AM and 18:00-19:00 PM, was the lowest at 14:00-16:00 PM, and had no significant difference in the other time sections; the resting behavior peaked at 11:00 AM-14:00 PM; and the maintenance behavior peaked at 9:00-10:00 AM and 15:00-16:00 PM. During foraging, there existed significant differences in the duration and interval of diving (P<0.01,P<0.05) between chicks and parents. The time that the ducks spent on resting was negatively correlated with the time spent on foraging and locomotion (R=-0.709, P<0.01; R=-0.725, P<0.01), but the time spent on locomotion was positively correlated with that spent on foraging (R=0.95, P<0.01). No significant relationships were observed among the other behaviors.

Key words: soil enzyme activity., controlled release blend bulk urea, soil nitrogen