Sub-montane habitat selection by a lowland pheasant
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Author list: Sukumal N., Gale G.A., Savini T.
Publication year: 2010
Journal: Raffles bulletin of Zoology (0217-2445)
Volume number: 58
Issue number: 2
Start page: 391
End page: 401
Number of pages: 11
ISSN: 0217-2445
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
The specific habitat and behavioral reasons for elevational range shifts in a variety of species have been poorly documented. Here we investigated the habitat use of a lowland species, Siamese Fireback (Lophura diardi), which has expanded its range into sub-montane habitat in Khao Yai National Park in northeastern Thailand where it had not been previously recorded. We found that this Siamese Fireback population tends to use topographically fl at areas similar to topography found in lower elevation habitats, with the exception of nest sites, which were placed on steeper slopes, presumably to facilitate predatordetection and escape. As reported for other lowland populations, these birds also selected areas with greater under-story cover during the mating season and moved to areas with higher ground vegetation density while rearing young chicks. However, animals in our study area had larger home range sizes than reported for similar lowland Lophura species. This difference may be related to a reduced availability of lowland-like habitats in the newly occupied sub-montane areas. ฉ National University of Singapore.
Keywords
Lophura, Lowland forest species, Siamese fireback
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