Abstract:
In order to understand the micro-habitat selection mechanism of Hainan Gibbons, and provide scientific basis for the establishment of their protection strategy, from July to September 2019, we carried out a study on the micro-habitat selection of gibbons through quadrat survey in Hainan tropical rainforest National Park, the former Bawangling National Nature Reserve. A total of 131 data quadrats were obtained from all the four families of Hainnan Gibbons. 15 ecological factors of the foraging habitat were measured. Vanderploeg selection coefficient and scavia selection index were used to measure the preference of Hainan Gibbons to ecological factors. The study showed that Hainan Gibbons tended to consume food in areas of 800-1 000 m altitude, 15°-30° slope, half shade and half sunny slope and hillside. Hainan Gibbons also preferred to forage for food in the mountain rainforest, where the number of trees is 60-90 (within the range of 900 m
2), the DBH of trees is 20-30 cm, the height of trees is 15-20 m, the height under the branches is 5-15 m, the DBH of lianas is 5-10 cm, and the canopy density is 50%-75%. Hainan Gibbons preferred to forage in the habitat with a distance of 2-4 km from the road, a distance of less than10 km from the residential area and a distance of less than 500 m from the water source. Therefore, our results indicated that Hainan Gibbons had a certain preference for the selection of foraging microhabitatas, which were due to the characteristics of the climate, food, and disturbance.