Dependence of the leopard Panthera pardus fusca in Jaipur, India, on domestic animals S WAPNIL K UMBHOJKAR,REUVEN Y OSEF,JAKUB Z. KOSICKI P ATRYCJA K. KWIATKOWSKA and P IOTR T RYJANOWSKI Abstract The ecology and predator–prey dynamics of large Introduction felids in the tropics have largely been studied in natural sys- tems where wild ungulates constitute the majority of the nowledge of prey selection and diet is important for prey base. However, in tropical countries where commu- Kunderstanding the life history strategies of carnivores nities are primarily agrarian, the high density of domestic and for planning the conservation of an apex predator animals in human-dominated landscapes can be a potential (Miquelle et al., ). The density of carnivores is related prey source for large carnivores. We demonstrate almost to habitat quality, in particular to the availability of complete dependence of the Vulnerable leopard Panthera prey (Fuller & Sievert, ; Carbone & Gittleman, ; pardus fusca in the Jhalana Reserve Forest in Jaipur, north- Andheria et al., ; Karanth & Nichols, ). To enhance – west India on domestic animals as prey. We analysed the cost benefit ratio of energetic intake, large carnivores leopard scats collected during the dry season of November may visit areas close to, or even inside, human settlements –April . Domestic animals comprised the majority (Gehrt et al., ; Yirga et al., ; Athreya et al., ). of the leopards’ prey (.% frequency of occurrence): dogs Fear of carnivores, especially in the context of livestock dep- ’ Canis lupus familiaris (%), cats Felis catus (%), goats redation, can negatively affect people s well-being (Inskip & Capra aegagrus hircus (%) and cattle Bos taurus (%). Zimmermann, ). It has been shown that the abundance Wild species, which occurred in the leopards’ diet at a and availability of wild and domestic prey is the predomin- relatively low frequency, were rodents, the hare Lepus ant factor that determines the potential carrying capacity of nigricollis, small Indian civet Viverricula indica, rhesus human-dominated landscapes for large carnivores (Boitani macaque Macaca mulatta, northern plains grey langur & Powell, ). In human-dominated landscapes in Brazil, Semnopithecus entellus and mongoose Herpestes edwardsii. Nepal and Kenya (Schaller, ; Seidensticker et al., ; Diet is also a function of availability of potential prey, but no Mizutani, ) the biomass of potential domestic prey of data are available on the density of the leopard’s wild prey carnivores was higher than that of wild prey species. species in Jhalana Reserve Forest. Nevertheless, our results Discarded food waste and pet food may also contribute to suggest that abundance of domestic prey around Jhalana the food resources of carnivores (Gehrt et al., ). This re- ’ Reserve Forest sustains the c. known leopards. We con- duces carnivores fear of humans and, in consequence, the clude that these leopards, by preying on feral dogs in an density of carnivores in urban or semi-urban areas can be urban environment, could be considered as suppliers of a higher than in the wild (Butler et al., ). service to the human population amongst whom they thrive, In India, the intrusion of large predators into urban although this potentially exposes the leopards to the canine areas is well documented. Wolves Canis lupus (Jhala & distemper virus. Giles, ), Asiatic lions Panthera leo persica (Meena et al., ), striped hyaenas Hyaena hyaena (Singh et al., Keywords Diet, environmental service, human-dominated ) and tigers Panthera tigris (Karanth & Gopal, ) landscape, India, Jhalana, leopard, Panthera pardus fusca are known to attack livestock and persist in human- dominated landscapes. The leopard Panthera pardus fusca also lives successfully in the proximity of people (Athreya et al., ). Its broad diet includes amphibians, arthropods SWAPNIL KUMBHOJKAR Jhalana Wildlife Research Foundation, Pune, India and carrion, reducing dependence on water sources, which REUVEN YOSEF (Corresponding author, orcid.org/0000-0003-4331-9866) Ben is obtained from the prey (Daniel, ; Kshettry et al., Gurion University of the Negev-Eilat Campus, P. O. Box 272, 88106 Eilat, Israel ). Compared to larger felids, the small body size of E-mail [email protected] the leopard reduces the territory required to sustain a popu- JAKUB Z. KOSICKI Department of Avian Biology & Ecology, Faculty of Biology, lation and allows it to survive and thrive in proximity to Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland people (Daniel, ; Kshettry et al., ). ń PATRYCJA K. KWIATKOWSKA Institute of Zoology, Pozna University of Life To examine resource utilization by leopards in a rural, Sciences, Poznań, Poland semi-urban human-dominated landscape, we analysed the PIOTR TRYJANOWSKI Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic diet of leopards of the Jhalana Reserve Forest. Because the Received June . Revision requested July . Reserve is in close proximity to and surrounded by Accepted September . First published online October . human habitations, leopards have little fear of people and This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, Downloaded fromdistribution, https://www.cambridge.org/core and reproduction in any medium,. IP address: provided 170.106.202.126 the original work, on is 27 properly Sep 2021 cited. at 09:46:14, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/termsOryx, 2021, 55(5),. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605319001145 692–698 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319001145 Leopard dependence on domestic animals 693 FIG. 1 Jhalana Reserve Forest in north-west India, and the surrounding city of Jaipur, with the locations of the leopard Panthera pardus fusca scats collected. often feed opportunistically on easily accessible domestic felids (the leopard is the only large felid present in the prey (Athreya et al., , ). We thus hypothesized Reserve). Trained volunteers wearing gloves used forceps that the leopards’ diet comprises principally of domestic to collect the scats. A small portion of each scat was left, animals. Our objectives were to identify the leopards’ key so as to not disrupt the natural markings of the leopards prey species and examine their importance for human– (Schwarz & Fischer, ). The location of each scat was leopard coexistence and acceptance of the presence of leo- noted, with a GPS, at the time of collection. Scats were pards in the urban landscape (Kumbhojkar et al., ). stored in numbered polythene, zip-lock bags. Preliminary observations such as the presence of bones, claws, skin and other biological remains were noted if appropriate. Study area Highly degraded scats (n = ; .%) were excluded from the analysis and only well-preserved scats (n = ) were ana- The km Jhalana Reserve Forest lies on the south-east lysed. They were washed under running water and sundried. border of the city of Jaipur in north-west India (Fig. ). It The cuticular and medullar patterns of any hair remains were was designated on November in accordance with observed and photographed under a compound microscope. the provisions of Rajasthan Forest Act . The Reserve Scat analysis was based on Mukherjee et al. (), Mukherjee has a mean altitude of m, with higher elevations in the &Mishra(), diet-related studies (Karanth & Sunquist, north in the form of low, flat-topped hills, and is character- ; Biswas & Sankar, ; Sankar & Johnsingh, ; ized by tropical dry deciduous forest. During the s Andheria et al., ; Khorozyan et al., ;Odden& the main valley was planted with the native species Acacia Wegge, ), and our own collections of prey remains. All tortilis and Acacia senegal. hair, hooves, claws, teeth, nails and bones were separated for further analysis. Prey species were identified based on com- Methods parison with reference slides of hair samples from domestic animals in the study area and from reference slides of hair The population of leopards in the Reserve has been estimated, samples from wild prey and from previous studies (Oli, using camera traps and recognition of individuals, to com- ;Tiwari,). prise individuals (authors, unpubl. data). In a survey To assess if the sample size was sufficient for accurate of the Reserve we found that leopards used trails and tourist diet analysis (Edgaonkar & Chellam, ;Kshettryetal., routes for defecation. We monitored the trails, collecting ) we applied the rarefaction method, implemented scat samples in the dry season of November –April in EstimateS . (Colwell, ). This method estimates (Kumbhojkar et al., ; Fig. ). the expected cumulative number of species, with % The identity of leopard scats was confirmed using their confidence intervals (the Mao Tau estimator; Colwell, occurrence in scrapes characteristic of those made by large ). Oryx, 2021, 55(5), 692–698 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319001145 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.126, on 27 Sep 2021 at 09:46:14, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605319001145 694 S. Kumbhojkar et al. FIG. 2 Per cent of leopard scats collected