Preliminary Exploration to Interspecific Interaction between the Bearded Vultures Gypaetus barbatus and Other Birds of Nesting Cliffs in the Home Range
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①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration,①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration,①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration,①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration,①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration,①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration,①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration,①Research Institute of Forest Ecology,Environment and Protection,CAF Key Lab. of Forest Ecology and Environment,State Forestry Administration

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    Abstract:

    The Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is a cliff-nesting Accipitrinae bird, its territoriality is associated with the resources necessary for breeding and survival. This paper presents data of 7 breeding sites of the Bearded Vulture in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau collected from 1991 to 1993 and from 2010 to 2013. In total, 393 h of observation over 90 days were carried out during the investigation. Cliff-nesting birds were recorded by direct observation in 12 home ranges (a radius of 500 m away from the nests) of the Bearded Vulture (Table 1). According to our observation, 23 species of birds could arouse vigilance of the Bearded Vulture, with 11 species being nesting in their home ranges, such as Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis) ( > 107 nests), Saker Falcon (Felco cherrug) (8 nests), Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) (3 nests), Upland Buzzard (Buteo hemilasius) (3 nests) and Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) (1 nest), 3 species of Corvidae (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, P. graculus and Corvus macrorhynchos) (5 nests), Pigeons (Columba leuconota and C. rupestris) ( > 96 nests) and Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) (1 nests). For the total recorded 1 298 viligances caused by the 23 species, 65 interspecific interactions were observed between 12 species of birds and the Bearded Vultures, and the highest interspecific interaction frequency was the birds of Corvidae and the Bearded Vultures (34 times, 53.31% of all 12 species of birds) (Table 2). We also observed once that the Golden Eagle gave up its prey owing to the driving behavior of a Bearded Vulture in its home range. The preliminary knowledge of interspecific relationship is as following: (1) The nests of Bearded Vulture adjacent to Himalayan Griffon′s community nests, showed a relatively shorter inter-nest distance, which reduced from a range of 35.84 km (25.10﹣47.30 km, n = 6) to 7.39 km (6.22﹣8.58 km, n = 5); (2) The inter-nest distance of Saker Falcons nests in home ranges of Bearded Vulture could be only 150﹣360 m (n = 4), much shorter than ones in eastern China (1.71﹣2.00 km) and western China (the nearest distance is 2.50 km, usually from 4 to 8 km or farther); (3) As the importance of Himalayan Griffon in the local traditional culture and customs, for the nests of Bearded Vultures adjacent to the Himalayan Griffon′s community nests, the adverse effects of human disturbance on theie breeding success were reduced to a great exten; (4) When the Bearded Vultures temporarily left their nests (either for foraging or by human disturbance), the existence of Corvidae and raptorial birds (especially the Saker Falcons), could increase the possibility of their eggs and chicks being preyed; (5) During the chick-rearing period (especially the first month of chick-rearing), the lost preies of small dead animals from the raptorial birds nesting in Bearded Vulture′s home range or in the vicinity area might partly play an important supplementary role for feeding the youngs of Bearded Vulture.

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SU Hua-Long, QIAN Fa-Wen, ZHANG Guo-Gang, JIANG Hong-Xing, LIU Dong-Ping, DUO Hai-Rui, ZHANG Yong, GOLOK Druk Kyab. 2016. Preliminary Exploration to Interspecific Interaction between the Bearded Vultures Gypaetus barbatus and Other Birds of Nesting Cliffs in the Home Range. Chinese Journal of Zoology, 51(6): 949-968.

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History
  • Received:August 24,2015
  • Revised:October 18,2016
  • Adopted:June 16,2016
  • Online: November 28,2016
  • Published: