CAJ | 학술논문

The breeding habitat selection by houbara bustards in Mori, Xinjiang, China duringthe breeding seasons from April to June 1998-2000 was studied. Most of habitats chosen forbreeding were short sub-shrubby and open areas close to high bushy patches. The nesting re-males clearly prefer Iow covered areas and avoid densely covered and high vegetation sites. Thenumber of herb species was significantly smaller at nest sites than at randomly selected sites.Only the distance to the closest fox den contributed the most to discrimination between successfuland predated nests. The average distance to the closest fox den was significantly longer at suc-cessful nests than at depredated nests. Vegetative density, plant species richness, topography anddistance to the closest fox den are possibly the most important factors that determined the nestsites selection of houbara bustard. The displaying males clearly prefer Iow covered areas andavoid densely covered and high vegetation sites. The vegetation density and number of plant spe-cies at display sites was significantly lower than that at randomly selected sites. The average dis-tance to the closest bushy patch was significantly shorter at display sites than at random sites.Plant species richness, vegetative density, vegetative cover and distance to the bushy patches arepossibly the most important factors for the display sites selection of houbara bustard.