behavior pattern as the indicator of reproductive success of alpine musk deer

to establish the behavioral indicator of reproductive success of female captive alpine musk deer(moschus sifanicus), the focal sampling was used to record the individual behaviors at xinglongshan muskdeer farm (xmdf), gansu province, china. conducted between june 2008 and january 2009, 31 adultfemales were observed, of which 26 had successfully bred in the previous year, and five of which werebarren. the frequencies of 12 behaviors were recorded and compared to explore variation in reproductivesuccess and general behavior patterns. the results showed that there were differences in behavioralfrequencies between females barren and fawned in the previous year. compared to successful individuals,barren females expressed environment sniffing more frequently during non-mating season, but lessfrequently during mating season (p