Movement of Released Nipponia nippon in Qianjiangyuan National Park and Inspiration to the Reconstruction of Its Population in the Southern China

Nipponia nippon, an endangered bird species, is one of the released fifteen key species belonging to rare and endangered wild animals in China. Qianjiangyuan Area is the historical distribution area of N. nippon, where ten N. nippon individuals were released in February 2023. On the basis of satellite tracking method, this paper monitored the activities of N. nippon released from February 22ed to November, 2023 in Qianjiangyuan National Park, collecting 9 841 effective sites and moving data of five individuals, and calculating their activity area by kernel density estimation (KDE).The results showed that the average tracking time of five individuals was 123.18 days, the amount of individual activity was low in the initial stage of release, and then gradually increased with the adaptation to the environment. In addition, three individuals moved around within 1-km range away from the releasing site, and two exhibited the dispersal behavior with a linear distance of almost 20 km, one of them dispersed to Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province, which indicated that there were potential habitats for N. nippon to survive in the vicinity of the releasing site. The amount and range of activity of the released N. Nippon not only does favor to understand its adaptation to the wild environment and provide reference for subsequent plans of supplementary release, but also offers evidence for formulating timely and effective conservation strategy.The moving routes of the released N. Nippon indicate that the continuous release in Qianjiangyuan National Park will have important significance for reconstructing N. Nippon population in the Southern China.