Sex differences in ecology of wild yaks at high elevation in the Kekexili Reserve, Tibetan Qinghai Plateau, China

Berger, Joël; Cheng, Ellen; Kang, Aili; Krebs, Michael A.; Li, Lishu; Lu, Zhengang; Buzhou, Buqiong; Schaller, George B.

doi:10.1644/13-mamm-a-154

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Wild yaks are an IUCN Red Data Book listed species restricted to the Tibetan Plateau and obligate grazers of extreme high elevation 5 12 . As in other dimorphic ungulates 13 14 , the sexes segregate most of the year with females in larger groups than males 15 . We categorized spatial variables using remote sensing of snow, glacial coverage, and vegetation and with field measures, and analyzed these to test our prediction in areas we and an 1896 British military exploration 17 surveyed more than a century apart; these spanned 1507 km 2 in 2006 18 and 4801 km 2 in 2012 in the 45,000 km 2 Kekexili National Nature Reserve on the Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau ( Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…3 , 4 ), may arise as an inevitable consequence of maternal investment. Unlike ungulates from warmer climes, female yaks still lactate in winter 15 . While milk production is physiologically costly 22 and protein needs are partially adjustable in Arctic ungulates 23 , for yak females, off-sets were ecologically modulated through micro-scale shifts to access 1) moisture that was not frozen solid (hence snow) and 2) vegetation of increased nutritional value ( Figs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…We evaluated whether peri-glacial zones represent differentially important habitats to yak, by testing two predictions - that overall yak densities will be greater in and around these high elevation locales, and that females, due to their immediate investment in offspring, should select resources of greater moisture and nutritional quality 13 14 15 16 . Wild yaks are an IUCN Red Data Book listed species restricted to the Tibetan Plateau and obligate grazers of extreme high elevation 5 12 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We obtained corresponding resource (habitat) covariates from remote sensing and global datasets (NDVI, snow cover, topography) 15 19 for each yak location during our 2006 and 2012 fieldwork, and tested whether yak group proximity was associated with forage production and distance-to-glacier for all 22 glaciers ( Fig. 1 , edge and centroid 19 20 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We created digital elevation models (DEMs) 15 , and assessed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), snow, and glaciers using ArcGIS Desktop (version 10.0) to display all 2006 and 2012 yak locations as spatial metrics (WGS 1984 Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 46 North)(ESRI; ArcGIS Desktop Help-Cell size and resampling in analysis.) 30 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Legacies of Past Exploitation and Climate affect Mammalian Sexes Differently on the Roof of the World - The Case of Wild Yaks

Berger

Schaller

Cheng³

et al. 2015

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In polar environments, a lack of empirical knowledge about biodiversity prompts reliance on species distribution models to predict future change, yet these ignore the role of biotic interactions including the role of long past human exploitation. To explore how mammals of extreme elevation respond to glacial recession and past harvest, we combined our fieldwork with remote sensing and used analyses of ~60 expeditions from 1850–1925 to represent baseline conditions for wildlife before heavy exploitation on the Tibetan Plateau. Focusing on endangered wild yaks (Bos mutus), we document female changes in habitat use across time whereupon they increasingly relied on steeper post-glacial terrain, and currently have a 20x greater dependence on winter snow patches than males. Our twin findings—that the sexes of a cold-adapted species respond differently to modern climate forcing and long-past exploitation—indicate that effective conservation planning will require knowledge of the interplay between past and future if we will assure persistence of the region's biodiversity.

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