Courship and maing behaviors in Przewalski ’s gazelle Procapra przewalskii

Breeding behaviour,which links wih populaion dynamics,plays an imporan role in conservaion and susainable use of wildlife. We observed courship and maing behaviors in Przewalski ’s gazelle Procapra przewalskii in he Yuanzhe area near he Qinghai Lake on he easern par of he Qinghai-ibean Plaeau from December,2003 o January,2004 wih a combinaion of “all-animal sampling”,“focal-animal sampling” and “all-occurrence sampling” mehods. Alogeher,we recorded 32 breeding behaviors in he Przewalski ’s gazelle. he courship and maing procedure in Przewalski ’s gazelle can be divided ino four phases.Firsly,he approaching sage,and female response o he males ’ approach and sniff in wo ways:ry o ge away or sand wih hind-legs apar,waggling is ail. If he female runs away from he approaching male,maing aempscease; if he female does no ry o ge away from he male ’s breeding erriory,hen he male coninues he second sage:courship performance. he male sands on his hind-legs and walks oward he female. If he courship performance in he second sage appeared wihou disurbance from herdsmen or livesock,he male would sar he hird sage:maing. he male sars o moun and o copulae he female while he female sood sill,he ejaculaion only lass for 1-2 second. he las phase is mae ending phase:frequenly,he male will end he female for 30 min afer maing. Our sudy shows he male Przewalski ’s gazelle possess a new copulaory paern in ungulaes wih no lock,single inromission,non-hrusing and muliple ejaculaions. he paern belongs o No.13 and No.14 in Dewsbury ’s and Dixson ’s sysem for classifying copulaory paerns,respecively. Livesock and herdsmen in he sudy area had significan impacs on he breeding behavior in Przewalski ’s gazelle. We recorded 1 009 copulaory aemps,only 85 succeeded. Mos of he copulaions in he gazelle ook place before he livesock reached or lef he lek of Przewalski ’s gazelle. We recorded 21 mae guardings in Przewalski ’s gazelle,averagely mae guarding lased abou 30 minues.