Correlation between Seasonal Changes in Territory Behavior and Fecal Testosterone Level in Captive Male Chinese Water Deer (Hydropotes inermis)
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    Abstract:

    By the method of focal sampling, instantaneous scan sampling and all-occurrence recoding, we observed six territory behaviors, included fighting, threatening, displacing, chasing, forehead scrap-marking and defecating-marking, of 6 captive male Chinese Water Deer (Hydropotes inermis) from August 2011 to April 2012 in the Huaxia Park of Pudong, Shanghai. The fecal testosterones were analyzed by radio-immunoassays to investigate the correlation between hormone and territory behaviors. The results indicated that there were significant differences in fighting, threatening, displacing, chasing, and defecating-marking among months (P<0.05, one-way ANOVA analysis). The deer spent significantly more time on all of the six behaviors in November. There were significant differences in fighting, threatening, forehead scrap-marking and defecating-marking between estrus (from October 2011 to January 2012) and non-estrus (September 2011, from February 2012 to April 2012) (P<0.05, Independent samples T test). The deer spent significantly more time on all of the six behaviors in estrus. In estrus, the fecal testosterone concentration level increased obviously than in non- estrus, and it reached the highest level in December (51.16±9.85 ng/g). The fecal testosterone levels were closely correlated with threatening, forehead scrap-marking, defecating-marking and fighting.

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YU Xiao-Jun, CHEN Min, ZHANG En-Di, ZHANG Zhi-Ming, YE Jian-Hua, PEI En-Le, YUAN Xiao. 2013. Correlation between Seasonal Changes in Territory Behavior and Fecal Testosterone Level in Captive Male Chinese Water Deer (Hydropotes inermis). Chinese Journal of Zoology, 48(1): 43-48.

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History
  • Received:August 27,2012
  • Revised:October 25,2012
  • Adopted:
  • Online: February 01,2013
  • Published: