Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas

Meng Wang; Yong-Gang Nie; Ronald R. Swaisgood; Wei Wei; Wen-Liang Zhou; Ze-Jun Zhang; Gui-Ming Wang; Fu-Wen Wei

doi:10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.421

Volume 44 Issue 2

Mar. 2023

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Article Navigation > Zoological Research > 2023 > 44(2): 341-348

Meng Wang, Yong-Gang Nie, Ronald R. Swaisgood, Wei Wei, Wen-Liang Zhou, Ze-Jun Zhang, Gui-Ming Wang, Fu-Wen Wei. Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas. Zoological Research, 2023, 44(2): 341-348. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.421

Citation:

Meng Wang, Yong-Gang Nie, Ronald R. Swaisgood, Wei Wei, Wen-Liang Zhou, Ze-Jun Zhang, Gui-Ming Wang, Fu-Wen Wei. Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas. Zoological Research, 2023, 44(2): 341-348. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.421

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Stable seasonal migration patterns in giant pandas

doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.421

1.
Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
2.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3.
Giant Panda Research, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, Escondido, California 92027, USA
4.
Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Mississippi 39762, USA

Permission for field surveys in Foping National Nature Reserve was granted by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and the Foping National Nature Reserve.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
M.W., F.W.W., and Y.G.N. conceived and designed the study. Y.G.N., W.W., W.L.Z., and Z.J.Z. conducted the surveys. M.W. and Y.G.N. prepared the data. M.W. and G.M.W. analyzed the data. M.W. and R.R.S. wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Funds: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31821001) and Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB3100000)

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: weifw@ioz.ac.cn
Received Date: 2022-12-02
Accepted Date: 2023-02-20

Published Online: 2023-02-20

Publish Date: 2023-03-18

Abstract

Abstract

A critical function of animal movement is to maximize access to essential resources in temporally fluctuating and spatially heterogeneous environments. Seasonally mediated resource fluctuations may influence animal movements, enabling them to track changing resource distributions, resulting in annual migration patterns. The conservation-dependent giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) displays seasonal movement patterns; however, the key factor driving these seasonal migration patterns remains poorly understood. Here, we used GPS tracking collars to monitor the movements of six giant pandas over a 12-year period across different elevations, and performed statistical analysis of seasonal migration directions, routes, habitat revisitation, home range overlap, first arrival events, and stability. Our results revealed a compelling pattern of seasonal migrations that facilitated the ability of the pandas to forage at the appropriate time and place to maximize nutritional intake. Our results indicated that pandas utilize spatial memory to locate reliable food resources, as evidenced by their annual return to the same or similar winter and summer home ranges and the consistently maintained percentage of home range overlap. These novel insights into giant panda foraging and movement ecology not only enhance our understanding of its ability to adapt to nutritionally poor dietary resources but also provide important information for the development of resource utilization-based protection and management strategies.
- Giant panda,
- Seasonal migration,
- Home range,
- Foraging ecology,
- Spatial memory

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References(72)

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