Prey selection and food habits of three sympatric large carnivores in a tropical lowland forest of the Eastern Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot

Food Habits of Dhole <I>Cuon alpinus</I> in Tropical Forests of Southern India

“…In terms of biomass consumed by dhole, sambar contributed the most (66.74%), followed by nilgiri tahr (10.94%), gaur (7.32%), wild boar (5.46%), mouse deer (2.89%), nilgiri langur (2.32%), muntjac (2.07%), hare (1.92%) and grey jungle fowl (0.32%) ( Table 1). Sambar was found to be the principal prey species for dhole in tropical forest of SVNP as inferred from the relative frequency of occurrence (36.79%) and relative biomass consumed (66.74%) ( Table 1), which is similar to the findings reported from Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve 22 and Satpura TR 9 . Similar studies in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve 8,10,17,23 in south India have indicated chital as the preferable prey for dhole whereas, this is not the case in our study as chital is not present in SVNP (Table 2).…”

Late Pleistocene mammalian assemblages of Southeast Asia: New dating, mortality profiles and evolution of the predator–prey relationships in an environmental context

“…The predation of the tigers might be also directed towards large animals like mature adult tapirs (250-350kg) and young rhinoceroses (~400kg), that are nevertheless less abundant in the record. Thus, as observed today in the Sub-Indian continent, the Pleistocene tigers most likely had great plasticity in their behavior regarding the type and body-mass category of prey hunted (Karanth and Sunquist, 1995;Ickes, 2001;Biswas and Sankar, 2002;Reddy et al, 2004;Ramesh et al, 2012;Selvan et al, 2013a).…”

“…Depending on their behavior, the kills involve either preferentially small prey (<50kg) or medium-sized prey (100-200kg) (Cooper et al, 1999). In Indian habitats, the dhole acquired prey in a body mass range of ˜30-60 kg (Johnsingh, 1982;Karanth and Sunquist, 1995;Selvan et al, 2013aSelvan et al, , 2013b. At Tam Hang, the predominant age class of pigs with a body mass range of 30-60 kg might also be preferred by the dhole.…”

“…The body mass estimate of the leopard P. pardus from Duoi U'Oi reveals its small size (20-26 kg), smaller than that of the living leopard in Asia (from China to India, 22-77 kg, Table 9), whereas the body mass estimate of the dhole C. alpinus from Sibrambang (14-17 kg) reveals a size comparable to that of the living dhole in Asia (in southeast area, 10-21 kg, Table 9). The complex interaction and competition between them for prey hunting and scavenging, characterized in Indian mammalian communities by a large overlap of prey items (Karanth and Sunquist, 1995;Biswas and Sankar, 2002;Ramesh et al, 2012;Selvan et al, 2013aSelvan et al, , 2013b, was most probably less marked during the Late Pleistocene. Indeed, considering the body-mass estimates, they could occupy different…”

Growth rate and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope trophic discrimination factors of lion and leopard whiskers

“…1,4 Such measures include in-depth understanding of their feeding ecology. 5,6 The diets of wild felids have been broadly explored using an array of traditional methods such as faecal analysis (e.g. [7][8][9] ), continuous follows (e.g.…”