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Arviazhagan, C.; Arumugam, R.; Thiyagesan, K.
Food habits of leopard (_panthera pardus fusca_), dhole (_cuon alpinus_) and striped hyena (_hyaena hyaena_) in a tropical dry thorn forest of southern India
2007  Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (104): 178-187

Food habits of the Leopard (_Panthera pardus fusca_) were studied in the Sigur (Nilgiri district) and Thalamalai (Erode district) Reserve Forests of Tamil Nadu, southern India from June to October 1997. A comparison of Leopard food habits with the diet of the co-predators, Dhole (_Cuon alpinus_) and Striped Hyena (_Hyaena hyaena_), in the study area was carried out to understand niche overlaps. Chital (_Axis axis_) was the major prey of the Leopard in both areas; found in 40% leopard scats in the highly disturbed area (HDA) and 65% in the less disturbed area (LDA). Other important prey species were Sambar (_Cervus unicolor_), Blackbuck (_Antilope cervicapra_), Black-naped Hare (_Lepus nigricollis_), Indian Wild Boar (_Sus scrofa_), Indian Porcupine (_Hystrix indica_), Common Langur (_Semnopithecus entellus_) and Indian Peafowl (_Pavo cristatus_). The Leopard had a wider niche-breadth value in the highly disturbed (0.32) than in the LDA (0.20). The food niche of the three predators - Leopard, Dhole and Striped Hyena overlapped considerably. Nicheoverlaps were higher in the less disturbed than in the HDA. Prey preference estimates showed that the most favoured prey of the Leopard was Chital. Domestic livestock formed a sizeable portion of the Leopard diet in both areas; more in the highly disturbed (33.3%) compared to the less disturbed (14.7%). Twenty cases of livestock kills by Leopards were recorded during the 5-month study. Anthropogenic pressure is not the direct reason; depletion of prey base caused by disturbance and higher encounter rate with domestic livestock are possibly the reasons.

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