Comparing post-release survival and habitat use by captive-bred Cabot’s Tragopan (Tragopan caboti) in an experimental test of soft-release reintroduction strategies

Table 1 General habitat characteristics from locations of radio-tracked reintroduced captive-bred Cabot’s Tragopans at the Taoyuandong National Nature Reserve, Luoxiao mountains, Hunan Province, southern China

		DW (m)	DR (m)	CL	TL (cm)	DB (N/100 m²)	CB
Trained group (n = 4)	Mean ± SD	117.5 ± 61.3	132.5 ± 51.2	0.74 ± 0.13	5.8 ± 2.4	1.1 ± 2.2	0.0025 ± 0.005
Untrained group (n = 9)	Mean ± SD	25.0 ± 48.5	35.6 ± 64.0	0.78 ± 0.11	5.2 ± 1.8	8.6 ± 7.1	0.14 ± 0.13
Trained versus untrained acclimatized	p value	0.007*	0.025*	0.736	0.820	0.069	0.045*

		DH (N/m²)	HH (cm)	CH	DS (N/100 m²)	HS (cm)	CS
Trained group (n = 4)	Mean ± SD	11.1 ± 4.8	18.2 ± 4.3	0.16 ± 0.11	26.8 ± 13.2	2.0 ± 0.4	0.28 ± 0.15
Untrained group (n = 9)	Mean ± SD	28.2 ± 18.0	30.4 ± 22.3	0.43 ± 0.21	24.4 ± 16.7	1.7 ± 0.8	0.21 ± 0.21
Trained versus untrained acclimatized	p value	0.081	0.710	0.050*	0.800	0.257	0.414

		GR	DT (N/100 m²)	HT (m)	DBH (cm)	CT	FW (N/100 m²)
Trained group (n = 4)	Mean ± SD	31.3 ± 11.1	7.1 ± 3.8	10.4 ± 3.2	31.1 ± 4.4	0.30 ± 0.06	4.5 ± 3.2
Untrained group (n = 9)	Mean ± SD	35.0 ± 20.3	8.2 ± 3.1	8.5 ± 2.4	25.1 ± 5.7	0.27 ± 0.13	3.1 ± 3.1
Trained versus untrained acclimatized	p value	0.585	0.604	0.414	0.045*	0.604	0.432

Habitat variables are defined as follows: DW = distance to the nearest water; DR = distance to the nearest road; CL = percentage cover of leaf litter; TL = thickness of leaf litter; DB = density of moso bamboo; CB = percentage cover of moso bamboo; DH = density of herb; HH = height of herbs; CH = percentage cover of herbs; DS = density of shrubs; HS = height of shrubs; CS = percentage cover of shrubs; GR = gradient; DT = density of trees; HT = height of trees; DBH = diameter at breast height; CT = percentage cover of trees; FW = density of fallen/dead wood
* Significant two-tailed test p < 0.05

ISSN: 2053-7166