Zhang Hong-hai

Winter habitat selection of red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis)

This paper studied the winter habitat selection of red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis) in Yancheng National Natural Reserve, Jiangsu Province. There were six types of habitat used by red-crowned cranes, i.e. salt-works, aquiculture ponds, reed lands, grassy tidal lands, salting wormwood lands and wheat fields. The wheat field was a new type of habitat used by red-crowned cranes. More than 70 percent of red-crowned cranes chose grassy tidal lands, salting wormwood lands, and reed lands as their most important habitats. In recent years, the distribution of red-crowned cranes moved southward gradually. Red-crowned cranes prefer artificial or semiartificial wetlands rather than original wetlands, successive distribution was broken into fragments.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Pattern of resting site of sables in Daxing’an Mountains

The use of resting sites of sables (Martes zibellina) was studied by radio-tracking techniques in Daxing’an Mountains in 1994–1996. The results showed that the males used 191 different resting sites, while females used 159 sites averagely in a year. The number of used resting sites varied among seasons, and the reuse index calculated for each individual in each season varied from 0.07 to 0.94. The reuse index was highest for males in autumn-winter. In spring the number of resting sites of females was significantly less than that of males. In summer, both sexes used more resting sites. In winter, the reuse index was negative related to snow depth. The average distance between consecutively used resting sites differed significantly between males (716 m, SD=479,n=1 081) and females (455 m, SD=298,t=8.59,P<0.001). For males the average distance was the shortest in February–March and the longest in August–September, whereas the shortest distance was recorded in April–May for females. In spring and autumn-winter, most individuals used resting sites that randomly distribute in their home ranges. The standardized Morisita coefficient of resting site dispersion in the home range varied from 0.06 to 0.50. In summer, the standardized Morisita coefficient of resting site dispersion in the home range varied from 0.38 to 0.51. Furthermore, in summer, 72% of all resting sites used by sables were located near the edges of their home ranges.

Assembling a physical map of the genome by marker sequences.

Molecular genetic maps were commonly constructed by analyzing the segregation of restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). Here we described methodology-marker sequences in a new mapping based on recent documents. With the methods they were unique sequences detected by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Each of the methods had its limitations and the current trend was to integrate the maps produced by the different methods. Market sequences contained mainly expressed sequence tags (ESTs), polymorphic sequence-tagged sites (STSs), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPDs), cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences (CAPS), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLPs), genome sequence sampling (GSS) and sequence-tagged connectors (STCs) in this paper.

Population and distribution of wolf in the world

This paper introduced the past and current situation about distribution and population of wolf (Canis lupus) in different countries. Wolf once distributed widely in the world. Its distribution area has diminished greatly as their living conditions are destroyed, together with persecution from humans. The overall population of wolf is also declining. In some countries, wolves are endangered or even extinct. Now some countries have placed the wolf on the national list of protected animals. Alaska of the United States and Canada are the widely distributed areas of wolves in the world.

Food habits of the grassland wolf in Inner Mongolia of China

In this paper, food habits of the wolf (Canis lupus) was determined in Inner Mongolia, using scat analysis Results indicated that ungulates were the staple food items (frequency 53.8%, relative biomass 85.2%). In the scats, animals was 40.3% by the frequency of occurrence, and 75.7% by the relative biomass. Compared with the food habits of wolves in Heilongjiang Province, wolves showed a different pattern in prey selection in this region. In this study, we estimated the relative biomass of food items, and amount of each prey ingested by a wolf, based on a linear regression equation,y=2.76+0.02x (r=0.997), which was obtained in the feeding trials. It is suggested that wolves are opportunistic predator. Some suggestions for wolf conservation and management were discussed.