The primary investigation of food niche differentiation between livestock and grassland rodents

By visual observing, qudrat measuring and food analyzing before and after foraging, the food niche differentiation between livestock (yak and Tibetan sheep) and rodents (plateau pika and plateau zokor) was investigated in Gannan alpine meadow. The results showed that food spectrum of rodents and domestic animals were different. Tibetan sheep and yaks mainly feed grasses and sedges, however, pika had broad food spectrum and zokor mainly feed the plants with taproots, rhizome, bulbs and earthnut. The food niche width, species diversity and evenness of livestock were significantly higher than those of rodents. The overlap of food niche between Tibetan sheep and yak was the highest, that between pika and tibetan sheep followed and that between zokor and Tibetan sheep was lowest. These results indicated that the food niche differentiation between rodents and livestock was larger because of the limited adverse effects of food competition on livestock.