Ecological significance and risks of mineral licks to mammals in a nature reserve on the Eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Figures & data

Photo 1.1. Locations of the six mineral licks visited most frequently in the Anzihe Nature Reserve, eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Table 1. Utilization of six mineral licks by different mammalian species in the Anzihe Nature Reserve during 2021.1–2021.12, measured as the number of independent photos for each species (photos of the same mammalian species were considered as independent if separated by at least 30 minutes)

Species/No. of mineral licks	NO. 1	NO. 2	NO. 3	NO. 4	NO. 5	NO. 6
Tibetan Macaque	0	0	0	0	0	1
Wild Boar	3	29	10	20	20	7
Sambar Deer	705	345	286	564	162	586
Musk Deer	0	0	0	1	0	2
Tufted Deer	0	1	5	0	0	0
Reeves’ Muntjac	0	0	1	0	0	0
Chinese Serow	0	0	3	5	0	0
Takin	44	14	1	0	2230	0
Sum of camera days	265	251	304	140	314	153

Photo 2.1. (a) Wild Boar (Sus scrofa), (b) Tibetan macaque (Macaca thibetana), (c) Tufted deer (Elaphodus cephalophus), and (d) Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) licking the mineral licks in the Anzihe Nature Reserve. Photo by Infrared camera (installer: Honghan Ma, Yujin Wang, Xingcheng He).

Photo 2.2. Feces from (a) a healthy individual of sambar deer (found in summer) and (b) a sambar deer with severe diarrhea (found in spring). Photo by Xingcheng He.

Photo 2.3. (a) Sambar deer’s (Rusa unicolor) courtship behavior, (b) Tibetan macaque’s (Macaca thibetana) mating behavior, and (c) Takin’s (Budorcas taxicolor) mating behavior in the mineral licks in the Anzihe Nature Reserve. Photo by Infrared camera (installer: Honghan Ma, Yujin Wang, Xingcheng He).

Photo 3.1. A sambar deer killed by a human trap. Photo by Honghan Ma.

Photo 3.2. Human traps found in the study region. Photo by Honghan Ma.