%0 Journal Article %A LI Ye1 %A YU Yu-qun2 %A SHI Lei1** %T Habitat segragation between foraging and bed sites of Tianshan argali (Ovis ammon karelini) in central Tianshan Mountains in winter. %D 2014 %R %J Chinese Journal of Ecology %P 358-364 %V 33 %N 2 %X Habitat segragation between foraging and bed sites for Tianshan argali (Ovis ammon karelini) was studied in Gurenguoleng of central Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. During December 2009 to January 2010, we totally investigated the Tianshan argali among 12 line transects along 5 ditches. Line transects were allocated from the bottom to the ridge of the mountain covering all typical vegetations in this region. In the field investigation, we observed 120 foraging and 114 bed sites for Tianshan argali with 13 ecological factors: elevation, slope, slope direction, slope location, landscape type, vegetation height, vegetation coverage, hiding level, distance from road, snow depth, snow cover, distance to human settlements and number of plant species. The results showed that there were no significant differences between foraging and bed sites for Tianshan argali among the factors of vegetation height, vegetation cover, and hiding cover level (P>0.05) in winter, but the differences of altitude, slope, distance to road, distance to human settlements, number of plant species, slope location and snow depth (P<0.01), snow cover, slope direction and landscape types (P<0.05) were significant between foraging and bed sites. We found that 5 essential ecological factors played important roles in distinguishing the foraging and bed sites, with a decreasing order of importance as snow depth, distance to road, elevation, slope, and vegetation height. Based on the mentioned ecological factor variables, the accurate rate for distinguishing the foraging and bed sites of Tianshan argali reached 95.1%. The results demonstrated that there was obvious habitat segragtion between foraging and bed sites for Tianshan argali to live in winter. %U http://www.cje.net.cn/EN/abstract/article_21295.shtml