Food habits of the Leopard Panthera pardus in DachigamNational Park, Kashmir, India
G.
Mustafa Shah 1, Ulfat Jan 1, BilalA. Bhat 2, Fayaz Ahmad 1
& Javid Ahmad 1
1,2P.G. Department of Zoology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar Jammu & Kashmir
190006, India
Email: 2 bilalwildlife@yahoo.co.in (corresponding author)
Date
of publication 26 March 2009
ISSN 0974-7907
(online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: L.A.K. Singh
Manuscript
details:
Ms # o1833
Received 08
August 2007
Final received
13 December 2007
Finally accepted
03 November 2008
Citation: Shah, G.M., U.
Jan, B.A. Bhat, F. Ahmad & J. Ahmad (2009). Food
habits of the Leopard Panthera pardus in DachigamNational Park, Kashmir, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa1(3): 184-185.
Copyright: © G. Mustafa
Shah, Ulfat Jan, Bilal A. Bhat, Fayaz Ahmad & Javid Ahmad 2009. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Acknowledgement: We thank the
Wildlife Department for permission and support to carry out the field work; and
to the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India for providing
financial assistance under the research project entitled “Bio-ecology of Hangul
Deer, Cervus elaphus hanglu and its relationship with the
predators at Dachigam National Park, Kashmir”.
It is known that
the Leopard (Panthera pardus)
feeds on a range of mammalian species, but studies of leopard food habits are
hampered by the animals’ secretive and nocturnal habits. In DachigamNational Park this challenge is made even more difficult by thick forests,
which preclude direct observation of leopard behaviour. This study was undertaken to provide
information on the food preferences of leopard in DachigamNational Park via scat analysis.
Study Area
Dachigam National Park,
(34005’-34012’N & 74054’-75009’E) is situated 21km northeast of Srinagar
(Fig. 1). Roughly rectangular, the park
has a total area of 141km2. It is
approximately 24km in length and 6km in breadth ranging in altitude from 1700m
to 4000m. A more or less continuous
range of mountains borders the national park except in the west, where it has
been artificially fenced. The average
climate of Dachigam is sub-Mediterranean. The park is
generally divided into lower (26km2) and upper Dachigam(115km2) by the beginning of fir forest.
Materials and
Methods
Analysis of
leopard scats was carried out to estimate the proportion of different prey
species consumed in a non-destructive, cost and time effective manner (Schaller
1967; Sunquist 1981; Johnsingh1983; Karanth & Sunquist1995). Leopard scats were collected by
walking regular transects in the field. Eight transects in lower Dachigam (24.5km in
length) and six in higher Dachigam (54km in length)
were covered in a manner that included all the habitat types found in the
park. Scats were identified based on
associated signs and tracks, size and appearance. The scats collected were washed and the
remains such as hair, bones, hooves, claws, nails, teeth, feathers etc. were
separated for species identification (Koppikar & Sabnis 1976, 1979; Mukherjee et
al. 1994a,b; Sunquist 1995; Karanth & Sunquist 1995; Biswas & Sankar 2002).
The hairs of
prey species were sampled following Mukherjee et al.
(1994a) and compared with reference slides in the laboratory collection of the
Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India. Identification was based on the general
appearance of the hair, colour, length, medullary structure and cuticularpattern (Moore et al. 1974; Mukherjee et al.
1994b). Quantification of the diet was
based on both frequency of occurrence expressed as percentage (Proportion of
total scats in which an item was found) and percent occurrence (number of times
a specific item was found as a percentage of all items found) (Ackerman et al.
1984).
Results and
Discussion
The result of
leopard scat analysis is summarized in Table 1. The analysis of 96 leopard scats revealed the presence of nine prey
species. The principal prey items were
dog, langur, hangul and
rodents with a percentage occurrence of 21.0, 21.0, 18.4 and 15.7
respectively. Henschelet al. (2005) reported that leopards preyed mainly on ungulates, primates and
rodents. Karanth& Sunquist (1995) reported that leopard fed on
different prey species like langur, chital,
chevrotain, porcupine etc. The
surrounding villages of Dachigam National Park
contain a sizeable dog population providing easy targets for leopards. Johnsingh (1983)
identified chital, sambar, cattle, langur and hare as leopard prey from scats, and reported killing of village
dogs by leopard in Bandipur. Aside from the lone bird remains found in one
of the scats, the leopard diet was entirely composed of mammal species in Dachigam National Park. Rice (1986) observed that the diet of leopard in EravikulamNational Park, Kerala consisted mainly of Sambar (Rusa unicolor) and Nilgiri Tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius). The percent occurrence of cattle,
sheep and goat put together was significant (18.3%) in the diet of leopard in Dachigam National Park during summer and autumn
months. It was related to the presence
of heavy cattle stocks during these months in Dachigam that were easily accessible prey for
the leopard. Johnson et al. (1993)
reported that large- and medium-sized mammals composed the majority of the
leopard diet, with livestock, pheasants, grass and soil eaten
occasionally. These dietary shifts may
reflect opportunistic encounters leading to changes in leopard hunting behaviour, prey availability or prey vulnerability. Karanth & Sunquist (2000) related predator activity to that of the
prey species. During winter and early spring the scats were mostly found to
contain hangul and langurhairs. This may be due to the fact that
during winter because of heavy snow cover hangul deer
and langur remain concentrated in a small belt of
lower Dachigam and could become easy targets of
leopard. Some prey species tend to
congregate in small areas in deeper snow as forage becomes unavailable
elsewhere (Fuller 1991) and encounter rates may increase (Huggard1993). Among mammal species, serow was least represented in the diet with the percentage
occurrence of 0.8.
Anecdotal
reports from across the country suggest that dogs form one of the major prey of leopards in human-dominated landscapes.
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