Abstract:Licking salt at natural or artificial salt sites is common in ungulates, but little is known about Chinese muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi). We preliminarily studied the rhythm of muntjac visiting artificial salt sites by using 4 infrared cameras with two distance level to road(50m vs.150m)within broadleaf forest in Tangjiahe Nature Reserve from September to October in 2013. Totally, we collected 288 valid records, in which male and female can be clearly identified. Muntjac visited salt sites 12.97±2.14 times daily, with two visiting peaks from 8:00 am to 9:00 am and 14:00pm to 16:00 pm respectively. However, the muntjac seldom visited salt sites at 2 am and 6 am in the early morning and 9:00 pm to 11:00pm during the night. We observed Chinese muntjac visited the salt sites located far from road (150m)more frequently than they did to sites that close to road (50m, 10.86 ± 2.25 vs. 2.10±0.58, t=3.77, P=0.001). Female and male muntjac showed similar salt lick visiting temporal pattern during night and no significant difference of visiting times was detected either calculated by day or by separated periods (morning, afternoon and night). The only difference of rhythm found between sex visiting salt sites was 13:00-17:00. Thus, male visited salt sites more frequently than female(t=-2.47,p=0.048) and two visiting peak observed during 13:00-14:00 and 15:00-16:00. The results indicated that human disturbance might be a factor hindered muntjac using related habitat and therefore impact their utilization of minerals. Female exhibit lower salt lick frequency during afternoon than male might be induced by activity rhythm variation and body weight variation between sexes, as well as male disturbance. Based on this study, we recommend nature reserve should consider human disturbance when setting artificial salt licks for the Chinese muntjac and other ungulates.