Winter daytime activity budgets of Asiatic Ibex Capra sibirica in Tomur National Nature Reserve of Xinjiang,China

Asiatic ibex,capra sibirica,is distributed only in the mountains of central asia,and is a threatened species in china. although the ecology of the c. ibex and c. walliae [c. nubiana waliae] have been well studied in europe and africa,little information is available on the species of asiatic ibex in asia. since knowledge of the time activity budget can provide useful information for ibex conservation and management,we studied the daytime activity budgets of the asiatic ibex in tomur national nature reserve (tnnr) of xinjiang,china. the results showed that both female and male ibex spent most of their time feeding: females spent significantly more time feeding than males (kruskal-wallis tests,χ 2=4.935,d.f=1,p=0.026),while males spent significantly more time standing than females (kruskal-wallis tests,χ 2=7.676,d.f=1,p=0.006). in addition,the asiatic ibex showed two distinct activity peaks during the day when they were most activity: early morning from 7:00 to 8:30 and around sunset from 15:30 to 19:30. copyright 2012 zoological society of pakistan.