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.