Abstract:[Objectives] The Chinese Pangolin Manis pentadactyla is secretive and burrowing, making it difficult to observe and track in the wild. At present, there is no record of individual continuous monitoring of the Chinese Pangolin M. p. aurita. in the mainland of China, and it is urgent to explore and summarize effective tracking methods to fill the information gap in the home range and wild activities of this species. [Methods] From June 18, 2022 to January 28, 2023, we used GPS satellite positioning, VHF radio telemetry and infrared camera monitoring to successfully track a female Chinese Pangolin for 224 consecutive days in Heyuan City, Guangdong Province, China. We calculated the home range and core movement area using mix convex polygon method and kernel density estimates method, recorded the number of days that the resting burrows were used and counted the peak period of activities. [Results] Our results showed that:(1) The movement area of this female Chinese Pangolin was 23.989 hm2, the core movement area was 10.953 hm2, and the movement area was larger in wet season (Fig. 1). (2) During the lactation period, it frequently moved cub between different resting burrows, and of the seven resting burrows monitored, each resting burrow was used from 2 to 18 d (Fig. 2). (3) The peak time of activities was from 18:00 pm to 1:00 am the next day (Fig. 3), and the proportion of activity time outside the burrows was only 4.46%. (4) Although the combined tracking method has certain advantages for Chinese Pangolin tracking, there are still some problems such as short endurance time and difficulty in field investigation. [Conclusion] This combined tracking method can be used as an effective method for continuous monitoring of Chinese Pangolins in mountain areas in the future. This paper also enriched the basic ecological data of Chinese Pangolin, and provided key information on conservation of Chinese Pangolin.
