SUB-MONTANE HABITAT SELECTION BY A LOWLAND PHEASANT

摘要

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 flat areas similar to topography found in lower elevation habitats, with the exception of nest sites, which were placed on steeper slopes, presumably to facilitate predator detection 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 reducedavailability of lowland-like habitats in the newly occupied sub-montane areas.