IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Sharma, S.; Dutta, T.; Bhatnagar, Y.V. | |
| Snow leopard in Himalaya: Resource Partitioning and Coexistence with Tibetan Wolf | |
| 2007 Conference Proceeding | |
Niche partitioning facilitates coexistence of sympatric large carnivores in any ecological community. Snow leopard (_Uncia uncia_) and Tibetan wolf (_Canis lupus chanco_) are highly endangered sympatric carnivore species of Himalaya, Tibetan plateau and other parts of central Asia. In an attempt to understand more about coexistence of these two top predators of Himalaya, we studied their food and habitat niche partitioning and resource sharing, by examining distribution pattern and microscopic analysis of their scats. We used multivariate statistical models developed in conjunction with habitat information in GIS domain. It was found that both species have a high degree of dietary overlap, but the two species tend to coexist by segregating their habitat. Snow leopard were mainly concentrated in closed, broken terrain with minimal amount of human disturbance; however wolves mostly use open, rolling terrain and does show some tolerance to human disturbance relative to that of snow leopard in our study area. Habitat openness and land form ruggedness were two main predictor variables responsible for differential habitat use and habitat separation of both species. Our study results provide important ecological info. |
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