3.4 Microhabitat differences between marked and control trees
Our survey identified 157 marked trees, corresponding to 441 unmarked
control trees, with significant differences in bark roughness between
both (χ2 = 19.31, P < 0.001);
DBH was greater in scent-marked trees compared to control trees, but the
difference was not significant (U = 34473.00, P = 0.079);
SDT was significantly shorter in marked trees than control trees
(U = 11791.50, P < 0.001) (Table S4). To detect
which variables had the greatest influence on the selection of the tree
by pandas, we performed stepwise logistic regression analysis on the
remaining variables after Pearson Correlation Analysis to eliminate
those that were significantly correlated. Finally, only roughness, DBH
and SDT entered into the stepwise logistic regression equation, where
roughness was the variable that explained the highest degree of whether
pandas selected the tree species for scent marking (Table 4), and pandas
preferred scent marking on trees with higher roughness.