Brood Habitat Characteristics of Reeve's Pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) in Dongzhai National Nature Reserve

The brood habitat of Reeves Pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) was investigated in Dongzhai National Nature Reserve in Henan Province from April to August in 2001.Twenty-four broods were observed and recorded in the field.The brood size averaged 2.96±0.35.The broods preferred mixed conifer and deciduous forest with an aspect to southeast,a gentler slope,a lower gradient,and its distance to water being around 30 m and distance to forest edge being more than 60 m.By Stepwise Discriminant Analysis,the key factors related to habitat selection of the broods were distance to forest edge,diameter at the breast height of trees,cover of scrubs and types and height of grasses.Our results demonstrated that the status of grasses was a very important index to habitat selection of the broods of Reeves Pheasant;at the same time,habitat selection of the broods was strongly influenced by the vegetation structure.Therefore,the conservation of Reeves Pheasant should hammer at improving its food supply and shelter condition,preventing its habitat from deteriorating,and keeping grasses undisturbed,particularly in the brood rearing seasons.