&lt;italic&gt;Equus kiang&lt;/italic&gt; (Perissodactyla: Equidae)

doi:10.1644/835.1

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…On the other hand, arid environments with limited forage like deserts or mountains may impose severe constraints on the foraging behaviour of wild equids, restricting their capacity to achieve a high dry matter intake (Rubenstein 1989). Previous studies suggested that equids adapted for arid environments make trade-offs between the nutritional quality of plants and their abundance when selecting food resources (Rubenstein 1989;Kaczensky et al 2008;St-Louis 2010), which may impose trade-offs among temporal scales of foraging behaviour as well. How the scarcity and fluctuating quality of the vegetation in forage-limited ecosystems affect foraging behaviour and functional response in wild equids, however, has rarely been addressed.…”

Section: Communicated By Gøran Ericssonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging behaviour at multiple temporal scales in a wild alpine equid

St-Louis

Côté

2011

Oecologia

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Forage abundance, forage quality, and social factors are key elements of the foraging ecology of wild herbivores. For non-ruminant equids, forage-limited environments are likely to impose severe constraints on their foraging behaviour. We used a multi-scale approach to study foraging behaviour in kiang (Equus kiang), a wild equid inhabiting the high-altitude rangelands of the Tibetan Plateau. Using behavioural observations and vegetation sampling, we first assessed how patterns of plant abundance and quality affected (i) the instantaneous forage intake rate (fine scale) and (ii) the proportion of time spent foraging (coarse scale) across seasons. We also tested whether foraging behaviour differed among group types, between sex in adults, and between females of different reproductive status. At a fine scale, intake rate increased linearly with bite size and increased following a type II curvilinear function with biomass on feeding sites. Forage intake rate also increased linearly with plant quality. Male and female kiangs had similar intake rates. Likewise, gravid and lactating females had similar intake rates as barren and non-lactating females. At a coarse scale, kiangs spent longer time feeding in mesic than in xeric habitats, and spent more time feeding in early summer and fall than in late summer. Groups of adults with foals spent less time feeding than male groups and groups of adults without foals. Our findings suggest that kiangs use flexible foraging behaviours in relation to seasonal variations of vegetation quality and abundance, a likely outcome of the extreme seasonal conditions encountered on the Tibetan Plateau.

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Section: Communicated By Gøran Ericssonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging behaviour at multiple temporal scales in a wild alpine equid

St-Louis

Côté

2011

Oecologia

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“…Morphologically, hemiones have both caballine horse features, such as gracile and slender bodies, and features similar to donkeys, such as a relatively small body size and a large head. Today, kiangs are found across Tibetan plateau (St-Louis & Côté, 2009) and Asiatic wild asses are found in the deserts and arid steppes of southern Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Iran, and India (Kaczensky, Lkhagvasuren, Pereladova, Hemami, & Bouskila, 2015). While fossils of kiang-like wild asses are known from Pleistocene deposits in Alaska (Harington, 1980), the Pleistocene range of kiangs remains unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The case of an arctic wild ass highlights the utility of ancient DNA for validating problematic identifications in museum collections

Vershinina

Kapp

Baryshnikov

et al. 2020

Molecular Ecology Resources

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Museum collections are essential for reconstructing and understanding past biodiversity. Many museum specimens are, however, challenging to identify. Museum samples may be incomplete, have an unusual morphology, or represent juvenile individuals, all of which complicate accurate identification. In some cases, inaccurate identification can lead to false biogeographic reconstructions with cascading impacts on paleontological and paleoecological research. Here, we analyzed an unusual Equid mandible found in the Far North of the Taymyr peninsula that was identified morphologically as Equus hemionus, an ancestor of present‐day Asiatic wild asses. If correct, this identification represents the only finding of a putative Late Pleistocene hemione in the Arctic region, and is therefore critical to understanding wild ass evolution and paleoecology. To confirm the accuracy of this specimen's taxonomic assignment, we used ancient DNA and mitochondrial hybridization capture to identify and place this specimen in the larger equid phylogeny. We find that the specimen is actually a member of E. caballus, the ancestor of domestic horses. Our study demonstrates the utility of ancient DNA to validate morphological identification, in particular of incomplete, otherwise problematic, or taxonomically unusual museum specimens.

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Fecal microbiota reveal adaptation of herbivores to the extreme environment of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Zou,

Li,

Liu

et al. 2024

Grassland Research

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BackgroundGut microbiota is pivotal in regulating hosts' biological processes and maintaining homeostasis, but knowledge about its role in wild herbivores in extreme environments remains limited.MethodsGut bacteria and fungi were sequenced in ruminant (Chiru and Yak) and nonruminant (Kiang) herbivores on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, and their community structure, co‐occurrence networks, functions, and assembly mechanisms were investigated using multivariate ecological and statistical methods.ResultsKiang had lower gut microbial diversity than Chiru and Yak. Bacterial host‐specific exclusivity was greater than that of fungi. In addition to the evidence of glycan biosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism, Chiru had a high Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and low animal pathogen abundance, suggesting better adaptation to the plateau's harsh environment. Additionally, members of gut microbiota tended to co‐occur rather than co‐exclude in all herbivores. Different network complexity and stability patterns were observed between bacterial and fungal communities. Furthermore, gut bacterial assembly was primarily controlled by stochastic dispersal limitation and drift, whereas fungal assembly was primarily controlled by deterministic homogeneous selection except in Chiru.ConclusionsOn the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, Chiru and Yak exhibit more diverse gut microbiota and more diverse metabolic functions than Kiang, and gut bacteria are more divergent than gut fungi in these herbivores.

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<italic>Equus kiang</italic> (Perissodactyla: Equidae)

Cited by 4 publications

References 29 publications

Foraging behaviour at multiple temporal scales in a wild alpine equid

Foraging behaviour at multiple temporal scales in a wild alpine equid

The case of an arctic wild ass highlights the utility of ancient DNA for validating problematic identifications in museum collections

Fecal microbiota reveal adaptation of herbivores to the extreme environment of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

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