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Diurnal Behavioral Rhythm, Time Budgets and Group Behavior of Dwarf Blue Sheep in Summer
Long, Shuai; Zhou, Cai-quan; Wang, Wei-kui; Pan, Li & Hu, Jin-chu
Abstract
The diurnal behavioral rhythm and time budgets of dwarf blue sheep were studied by method of scan sampling. The behaviors recorded were classified into five groups: feeding, moving, standing, bedding, and other activities. During summer, there are three feeding peaks in diurnal time (6:00 − 9:00, 10:00 − 11:00 and 16:00 − 20:00), and one bedding peak (11:00 − 15:00). The dwarf blue sheep was found to use 30.14% (±3.32) of their time feeding, followed by bedding (26.44%±3.59), standing (24.90%±4.27), moving (15.73%±1.26), and others (2.82%±1.00). We also found that adult males spend more time on feeding and standing than other individuals, juveniles spend more time moving and other activities, while females spend more time on bedding.
Keywords
Dwarf blue sheep; Rhythm; Time budget; Grouping behavior; Behavioural ecology
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