Tragopan caboti

The foreign name of the yellow-bellied tragopan is Cabot's Tragopan, and there are 2 subspecies.

The yellow-bellied tragopan is good at hiding and running. It often moves in dense undergrowth and grass under the forest. It generally does not take off unless it has to. They often move in small groups of 5-9 individuals. Their activity range is 0.02-0.3 square kilometers. They mainly move and feed on the ground. They often forage on the ground in a loose manner during the day, and roost in trees at night. They also roost in trees or feed on trees on rainy or snowy days.

The yellow-bellied tragopan mainly feeds on ferns and plant stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. It also eats insects such as termites and caterpillars, and a small amount of animal food, especially during the breeding season. The types of food they eat vary with the seasons. In spring, they mainly feed on the tender leaves and buds of plants such as ferns, mountain cherries, camellias, oil tea, azaleas, wild crabapples, sedges and snakeroot. In summer and autumn, they mainly feed on the tender leaves, buds, berries, nuts and seeds of the above plants as well as tea, strawberries, raspberries, tiger nanmu, albizia, elaeagnus, cycads and white oaks. In winter, they mainly feed on nuts of Fagaceae plants, seeds of Millettia odorata and seeds of various camellias. They are usually active and feed more frequently after coming down from the tree at 7:00-8:00 and before going up to the tree to roost overnight at 16:00-18:00.

The yellow-bellied tragopan is particularly dependent on the fruits and leaves of sedges. The fruits and leaves of the truncatum are the favorite food of the yellow-bellied tragopan in autumn and winter, so the truncatum has also become the main overnight habitat of the yellow-bellied tragopan in autumn and winter. The distribution of the truncatum is highly correlated with the distribution of the yellow-bellied tragopan. It builds nests on trees, and weaves simple dish-shaped nests with pine needles, dead leaves, moss, etc. in the concave pits of thick tree trunks or the bases of horizontal branches.

The yellow-bellied tragopan is clumsy, not good at flying, likes to lurk, is very timid, moves secretly, reacts slowly, and sometimes does stupid things like "burying its head and disappearing". When it hears a dangerous sound, it does not fly or run, but stands still, looking east and west. When it finds someone approaching it, it is too late to escape, so it thinks of a "smart" and dives into the weeds, but its body is still exposed, like an ostrich, so it is also called "stupid chicken". Therefore, it has many natural enemies.

After the female and male yellow-bellied tragopans enter the breeding season, the activity intensity increases significantly, and there are two activity peaks every day. The male bird's courtship display (including complete and incomplete display) reaches a climax in the room in mid-March and late March, and changes periodically with the female bird's egg laying, with two courtship display peaks every day. The breeding season is from March to May. Courtship display behavior appears in mid-March, and some male birds appear as early as December and January. The courtship display behavior is mainly the male bird nodding up and down to the female bird and showing the flesh under the throat, but most of the early courtship display is terminated because the female bird is not in estrus. Most of them start to estrus in March and April.

During the breeding season, the male pheasant occupies a piece of forest and calls "wa...wa...ga ga ga ga" in the early morning. They divide their own spheres of influence. Some weak male birds are unable to maintain ownership of a piece of forest and have to wander around, thus losing the opportunity to mate.

When in estrus, the flesh skirt under the throat of the male bird swells and droops, showing a bright scarlet color, and the emerald blue stripes crisscross, which looks like the traditional Chinese character "Shou" from a distance, so it is also called "Shou Chicken". The pair of emerald blue flesh horns on the head are straight and protruding, and even more shiny. The male bird has a complex set of courtship displays: first, it crouches facing the female bird and nods its head up and down continuously. The fleshy horns also slowly spread out and droop to the chest. If the fleshy horns are stretched unevenly or lean to one side, they are leveled by shaking their heads. At the same time, the fleshy horns on the head also extend with the nodding action. Then the wings spread out and flap in a synchronized manner with the nodding action. The fleshy horns are further engorged and swelled. At the same time, the mouth opens and makes a "chi..." sound. The tail feathers spread out and tremble slightly. At the climax, the body suddenly stands upright, the wings are tightly clamped to the sides of the body, the head droops downward, the tip of the beak points to the ground, the sky blue fleshy horns are displayed in front of the female bird, and a long and loud "chi..." sound is emitted. Along with this long call, sometimes the two legs are quickly extended and retracted alternately, or the female bird is charged 2-3 meters, and then the female bird is crouched, nodding several times, and the fleshy horns and fleshy horns slowly retract, ending the courtship. When the male bird is in heat and is courting the female bird, if the female bird stands still and stares at the male bird, it will excite the male bird and complete the whole process of courting; if the female bird looks away, reacts coldly or leaves, the male bird's courting display will be interrupted. Usually, under the stimulation of the male bird's courting display, the female bird shows estrus behaviors such as allowing the male bird to approach and slightly opening her wings and crouching in front of the male bird, spreading her tail feathers like a fan, or flapping her wings facing the male bird and crawling forward for a few steps, and then the male bird will get on the female bird's back for mating. During mating, the male bird uses his mouth to hold the feathers on the top of the female bird's head or neck and shoulders to complete mating. In the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen gave a vivid and realistic description of the display of the male bird's meat skirt and meat horns when in heat, and named it "Tushou Chicken" based on this characteristic.

The yellow-bellied tragopan usually nests on the shady or semi-shady slopes near the ridge in evergreen broad-leaved forests or mixed forests at an altitude of 1000-1500 meters. The nests are mostly placed on the horizontal branches of Armand pine near the base, in the concave part of the horizontal branches of broad-leaved trees or in the dense branches near the main trunk, 3-9 meters above the ground. The nest is relatively simple, mainly composed of moss and fallen leaves. The size of the nest is 15.5-19 mm × 17.3-28 mm, and the depth is 6-11 mm. Egg laying begins in late March and early April, with one egg laid every other day. One nest is laid every year, with 3-4 eggs per nest, occasionally 6 eggs, and sometimes only one egg per year. Pheasant eggs are slightly larger than chicken eggs. The eggs are earthy brown or earthy yellow, densely covered with fine brown or reddish brown spots, and sometimes with large and sparse gray-purple spots. The size of the eggs is 51.5-57.3 mm × 38-43.9 mm, and weighs 50-57.4 grams.

After the eggs are laid, the female bird begins to incubate them. In the early stage of incubation, the male bird is active near the nest and roosts on a tree near the nest at night, but disappears in the later stage. The incubation period is 28 days, and during the incubation period, it only leaves the nest for about 1 hour a day to go out for food. There are many natural enemies, and the eggs are often stolen, and the breeding success rate is only about 10%. During the incubation period, the female bird is very attached to the nest, especially in the later stage of incubation. People often come to her, and she will not fly even if you poke her body with a stick or catch her. When threatened, she can even use one wing to hold the eggs and move them away until the danger is over, and then she will move all the eggs back to the nest to continue incubating.

The chicks mature early, weighing only 36.8-38.31 grams when they are just hatched, and are covered with brown down feathers. They can flap their wings on the same day after hatching, and can follow the female bird down the tree to leave the nest and forage on the third day, and spend the winter in a family group. The task of caring for the chicks is entirely undertaken by the female bird, who is also very protective of the chicks. When the chicks are threatened by intruders, they will violently attack the intruders. The growth and development of young birds is relatively slow, and they can only develop into adults after two years.

Analysis of records and surveys of the Yellow-bellied Tragopan by BirdLife International (2001) and the China National Wildlife Survey (1995-2000) yielded a population estimate of approximately 9,300 individuals, although Brazil (2009) estimated much less: less than 100 breeding pairs. Estimates range from 2,500-9,999 adults, equivalent to 3,750-14,999 individuals, rounded here to 3,500-15,000 individuals. However, it is likely that the population is less than 5,000 mature individuals (Zhang Zhengwang in lit. 2012). There is evidence that protected areas can effectively protect this species and maintain populations. However, in Wuyanling National Nature Reserve in Zhejiang, China, the density of the yellow-bellied tragopan decreased from 7.1 per square kilometer in the late 1980s to 0.9 per square kilometer in 2002-2003. The species is suffering from habitat conversion and hunting pressure in the reserve and is therefore suspected to be in moderately rapid decline.

The main threats to the yellow-bellied tragopan are habitat loss and modification, especially where habitat fragmentation is occurring. Limited dispersal capacity has been documented in gaps in forest cover above 500 meters, meaning that the species is highly susceptible to fragmentation. Most natural forests have been logged or converted due to demand for agricultural land and timber, and the development of roads and railways in urban areas (Zhang Yanyun, 2010). The impact of roads may be limited to routes with hard surfaces and busy traffic, such as a study of the Wuyishan National Nature Reserve in Jiangxi Province, which found that the relatively quiet clay road that bisects the reserve did not constitute a barrier to the species and even seemed to provide opportunities for feeding, grit collection, and courtship, although traffic volume and the resulting disturbance were important factors (Yue Sun et al., 2009). However, the gradual replacement of natural evergreen broadleaved forests with conifer plantations and bamboo is a major problem for the species, in part because the species nests on natural platforms, such as forks between branches, which are lacking in most conifers. The provision of artificial nesting platforms may allow the species to persist in conifer habitats (Wen-hong Deng et al., 2005). Illegal hunting still occurs in some locations, particularly outside protected areas. Since 1983, 48% of known nests have been destroyed by natural predators, especially Eurasian common jays, yellow-throated martens, and ocelots.

Listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016 ver 3.1 - Vulnerable (VU).

Listed in the CITES Appendix I protected animals of the Washington Convention.

Listed in the I level of China's National Key Protected Wildlife List.

Protect wildlife and eliminate game.

Maintaining ecological balance is everyone's responsibility!

The yellow-bellied tragopan is a bird endemic to China. It is not found outside of China.
It is found in Taishun, Wencheng, Jingning, Yunhe, Lishui, Suichang, Quxian, and Longyou in Zhejiang; Yongxin, Sanqingshan, Jinggangshan, Qianshan, Wannian, Shangyou, Chongyi, and Dayu in Jiangxi; Ruyuan, Yangshan, Lechang, Qujiang, Lianshan, Shixing, Renhua, Nanxiong, Dapu, Wuhua, Chaozhou, and Huaiji in Guangdong; Wuyishan in Fujian; Gongcheng, Yongfu, Lingchuan, Xing'an, Fuchuan, Hexian, and Rong'an in Guangxi; and Mangshan in Hunan.
It mainly inhabits subtropical mountain evergreen broad-leaved forests and coniferous broad-leaved mixed forests at an altitude of 600-1800 meters. The habitat is moist and warm all year round, with an average annual temperature of about 15℃, an average annual relative humidity of more than 80%, and an annual rainfall of about 2000 mm. Among them, Fagaceae, Lauraceae, Theaceae, Aquifoliaceae, Rosaceae, Ericaceae and Pinus taiwanensis are the dominan

Adult male yellow-bellied tragopan (spring plumage): forehead and top of head are black; the crest on the head is black in front, then turns dark orange-red, and the sides of the crest are also the same color; the back of the neck is black, and this color extends from behind the ears to the surrounding of the flesh hem; the sides of the neck are also dark orange-red, extending downward almost to the middle of the chest; the upper body including the surface of the wings is black, with white horizontal spots at the base of the feathers, and obvious leather yellow oval spots at the tip of the feathers. The sides of each feather are mixed with chestnut red triangular spots. The overall appearance is chestnut red, and it is covered with leather yellow oval spots with black edges, which is particularly gorgeous; the leather yellow spots on the upper tail coverts are more enlarged, occupying most of the tail feathers; the flight feathers are dark brown, mixed with yellow spots, especially on