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Mammal Study
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Abstract
Abstract.
Comprehensive information on prey availability and diet composition is important to formulate effective conservation strategies. Data on these of large apex predators, the tiger Panthera tigris, leopard Panthera pardus, and dhole Cuon alpinus, are deficient in Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, India, which harbors low prey density. Therefore, we investigated how these predators coexisted by partitioning limited food resources. We found that prey selection and activity patterns differed among predators. The leopard (D [Jacobs' preference index] = +0.916) and dhole (D = +0.937) preferred the Indian chevrotain Moschiola indica, whereas the tiger preferred the gaur Bos gaurus (D = +0.937). Biomass of tiger's diet mainly consisted of the gaur (75%). In the dhole, the Indian chevrotain and sambar Rusa unicolor together contributed 91% of biomass, whereas 79% of leopard's biomass was contributed by the Nilgiri langur Semnopithecus johnii and the Indian chevrotain. The leopard and dhole had the highest dietary overlap (Ojk [Pianka Index] = 0.46). The highest activity overlap was found among the leopard, Indian chevrotain, and sambar. The leopard and dhole would compete for the Indian chevrotain, although the competition may be avoided by different activity patterns. Managements of the Indian chevrotain and gaur are critical for conserving large predators in the region.
We thank the Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director of Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve for granting permission to research KMTR. This work was supported by the DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award [2013/DST/INSPIRE/04/2013/0000460], Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India. We are grateful to the DST-INSPIRE faculty program for financial support. We give special thanks to the Head of the Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Pondicherry University for providing facilities. This research is part of the first author's Ph. D. dissertation in Wildlife Biology and he extends his sincere thanks to the Management and Principal of A. V. C. College (Autonomous) for the necessary support to this study. We are extremely thankful to all administrative staff in KMTR for their support of the research in many ways, in particular, Mr. Velladurai, Mr. Ilango and Mr. Karthikeyan for having provided the hospitality, support and encouragement. We extend a special word of thanks to Mr. M. Manikandan, Mr. P. Radhakrishnan, Mr. Jeyakumar, and Mr. Madasami for having assisted in the field and for having extended their valuable field expertise. Thanks also to Dr. Venkateswara Sharma (Department of Biotechnology, Pondicherry University) for the use of his laboratory facilities. We acknowledge Dr. Ravichandra Mondreti and Dr. Thinesh who improved the manuscript by editing earlier versions and valuable suggestions. We would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions which greatly improved our manuscript.
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