Kim Nari, Kim Areum, Lee Je-Min, Kim Ah-Young, Lee Yujin, Jo Yeonghoon, Kim Kiyoon, Do Kyung-Hyo, Seo Kwang-Won, Yoon Kwang-Bae, Jeong Dong-Hyuk
College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea.
Center of Endangered Species, National Institute of Ecology, Yeongyang 36531, Republic of Korea.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Dec 18;14(24):3662. doi: 10.3390/ani14243662.
Understanding the dietary composition of the Siberian musk deer () is critical for informing conservation efforts, particularly given the species' vulnerable status in the Republic of Korea and its limited ecological data. Previous dietary studies have relied on conventional methods with limitations in taxonomic precision, hindering comprehensive insights into their feeding ecology. To address this gap, we used Next-Generation Sequencing to analyze 16 fecal samples collected in April from Gangwon Province, the habitat of . Our results revealed 213 unique plant species, with , , and accounting for the majority of the diet. Notably, nearly half of the identified genera, including , , and , were reported for the first time as dietary plants of . This study confirms that is a concentrate feeder that primarily relies on woody plants (98.8%) and may exhibit tree-climbing behavior to access parasitic shrubs like . These findings provide a foundation for future dietary analysis research and serve as valuable baseline data for the long-term conservation of .
了解西伯利亚麝鹿的饮食组成对于指导保护工作至关重要，特别是考虑到该物种在韩国的濒危状况及其有限的生态数据。以往的饮食研究依赖于传统方法，在分类精度上存在局限性，阻碍了对其觅食生态的全面了解。为了填补这一空白，我们使用下一代测序技术分析了4月份从江原道（西伯利亚麝鹿栖息地）采集的16份粪便样本。我们的结果揭示了213种独特的植物物种，其中栎属、柳属和悬钩子属占饮食的大部分。值得注意的是，近一半已鉴定的属，包括荚蒾属、胡颓子属和蔷薇属，首次被报道为西伯利亚麝鹿的食用植物。这项研究证实，西伯利亚麝鹿是一种精饲料动物，主要依赖木本植物（98.8%），并且可能会表现出攀树行为以获取像桑寄生属这样的寄生灌木。这些发现为未来的饮食分析研究奠定了基础，并为西伯利亚麝鹿的长期保护提供了有价值的基线数据。
