Diet and prey selection by snow leopards in the Nepalese Himalayas

Abstract

Visual attractiveness and rarity often results in large carnivores being adopted as flagship species for stimulating conservation awareness. Their hunting behaviour and prey selection can affect the population dynamics of their prey, which in turn affects the population dynamics of these large carnivores. Therefore, our understanding of their trophic ecology and foraging strategies is important for predicting their population dynamics and consequently for developing effective conservation programs. Here we concentrate on an endangered species of carnivores, the snow leopard, in the Himalayas. Most previous studies on snow leopard diet lack information on prey availability and/or did not genetically check, whether the identification of snow leopard scats is correct, as their scats are similar to those of other carnivores. We studied the prey of snow leopard in three Himalayan regions in Nepal (Sagarmatha National Park (SNP), Lower Mustang (LM) and Upper Manang (UM) in the Annapurna Conservation Area, during winter and summer in 2014–2016. We collected 268 scats along 139.3 km linear transects, of which 122 were genetically confirmed to belong to snow leopard. Their diet was identified by comparing hairs in scats with our reference collection of the hairs of potential prey. We determined prey availability using 32–48 camera-traps and 4,567 trap nights. In the SNP, the most frequent prey in snow leopard faeces was the Himalayan tahr in both winter and summer. In LM and UM, its main prey was blue sheep in winter, but yak and goat in summer. In terms of relative biomass consumed, yak was the main prey everywhere in both seasons. Snow leopard preferred large prey and avoided small prey in summer but not in winter, with regional differences. It preferred domestic to wild prey only in winter, and in SNP. Unlike most other studies carried out in the same area, our study uses genetic methods for identifying the source of the scat. Studies solely based on visual identification of samples may be strongly biased. Diet studies based on frequency of occurrence of prey tend to overestimate the importance of small prey, which may be consumed more often, but contribute less energy than large prey. However, even assessments based on prey biomass are unlikely to be accurate as we do not know whether the actual size of the prey consumed corresponds to the average size used to calculate the biomass eaten. For example, large adults may be too difficult to catch and therefore mostly young animals are consumed, whose weight is much lower. We show that snow leopard consumes a diverse range of prey, which varies both regionally and seasonally. We conclude that in order to conserve snow leopards it is also necessary to conserve its main wild species of prey, which will reduce the incidence of losses of livestock.

Implications of landscape genetics and connectivity of snow leopard in the Nepalese Himalayas for its conservation

“…Sites LM and UM are in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA), sites N-S and SW-S are in the Sagarmatha National Park (SNP). All four sites were described in our previous paper 4 and therefore we do not repeat their description here. In the Thame valley, no snow leopards were detected in either camera traps or scat samples.…”

“…DNA from the samples was extracted and a ~ 148 bp segment of mitochondrial cytochrome-b was PCR-amplified using the primers CYTB-SCT-PUN-R’ and CYTB-SCT-PUN-F’ 56 for the species identification. The camera trap survey, scat sampling and snow leopard species identification methods were designed for studying abundance of snow leopard and its prey and diet of the former—see Shrestha et al 4 …”

“…DNA from the samples was extracted and a ~ 148 bp segment of mitochondrial cytochrome-b was PCR-amplified using the primers CYTB-SCT-PUN-R' and CYTB-SCT-PUN-F' 56 for the species identification. The camera trap survey, scat sampling and snow leopard species identification methods were designed for studying abundance of snow leopard and its prey and diet of the former-see Shrestha et al 4 Leopard Sex ID PCR. The sex identification of the verified snow leopard scat samples was done by testing for the presence of the Y chromosome using primers that amplified an intron of the AMELY gene (i.e., a gene only found on the Y chromosome).…”

Metabarcoding diet analysis of snow leopards (<i>Panthera uncia</i>) in Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province

“…However, livestock (yak) also accounted for a relatively large proportion of their diet. Key words: snow leopard (Panthera uncia); non-invasive sampling; high-throughput sequencing; barcoding; diet analysis; Qionglai Mountains 雪豹(Panthera uncia)是起源于青藏高原的大型 猫科动物, 现仅分布在包括中国在内的12个国家 (Tseng et al, 2014;McCarthy et al, 2016) (Schaller et al, 1988 (Bagchi & Mishra, 2006;Wang et al, 2014;Kachel et al, 2016;Shrestha et al, 2018)…”

In the shadows of snow leopards and the Himalayas: density and habitat selection of blue sheep in Manang, Nepal

“…Here, ungulates may affect plant species diversity and distribution through seed dispersal (Aryal et al., 2015b; Shrestha & Moe, 2015), and blue sheep represent the main wild prey for sympatric large carnivores, such as the globally vulnerable snow leopard ( Panthera uncia ; Lyngdoh et al., 2014). The snow leopard, which is a Himalayan flagship species, may heavily depend on blue sheep and selectively hunts these ungulates throughout their range (Aryal et al., 2014a; Lyngdoh et al., 2014; Shrestha et al., 2018). Therefore, protection of blue sheep populations is crucial to fulfill larger conservation goals such as maintaining ecosystem integrity and ecological functions, strengthening wildlife capacities to withstand increasingly difficult environmental conditions created by climate change, and fostering co‐existence between wildlife and local rural communities.…”