Under joint supervision of Prof. Chen Jin and Prof. Zhang Shuyi, XTBG Ph. D candidate Zhou Youbing has done four-year systematic studies on the functions of marten as seed dispersers, by means of radio tracking and faecal analyses, and made new research advances. Some research results have been published in international peer-reviewed journals.
Although P. larvata is considered to be a generalist carnivore, the animals prefer fruits to rodents when the former are available, presumably because of the higher profitability of consuming fruit.
Related research results were published as follows:
1. Frugivory and seed dispersal by a small carnivore, the Chinese ferret-badger, Melogale moschata, in a fragmented subtropical forest of central China in Forest Ecology and Management 255:1595-1603, 2008.
2. Diery Shifts in relation to fruit availability among masked palmcivets (Paguma larvata) in central China in Journal of Mammalogy 89:435-447, 2008
3. Frugivory and seed dispersal by the yellow-throated marten, Martes flavigula, in a subtropical forest of China in Journal of Tropical Ecology 24:219-223, 2008.
Furthermore, these research results have been adopted in the Documentary Silent Hill (both in Chinese and English) about marten. |