Abstract: By observing the unknown sex pellets collected from Cervus elaphus songaricus wild populations of Urumqi Nanshan mountain, all pellets are presented one of two shapes of bullet-like and jujube-stone like. The bullet-like fecal pellets displayed a short thick form with a low length/width ratio. The jujube-stone like ones displayed a thin long form with high length/width ratio. Using these shapes,the 140 samples were divided into two groups of 86 bullet-like and 54 jujube-stone like feces, and determined by PCR amplification of the SRY gene. Among of them,94 samples were identified as male,and the others as female. All the samples were clustered by the ratio of averaged length and width,and then the discrimination equation was established. The statistical results showed that the consistent degree of sex determination by fecal statistic index and DNA method was 85.48%,while morphological method and real sex was 88.34%. So,the bullet-like pellets were from male wapiti,and the jujube-stone like ones from females. The results showed that wapiti sex could be directly determined by its pellet shape in the wild. At the same time,the discrimination equation could be used as associated method.

Key words: Cervus elephus songaricus; pellet shape; SRY gene; sex determination