Diet composition and niche overlap of two sympatric carnivores: Asiatic jackal Canis aureus and Kashmir hill fox Vulpes vulpesgriffithii, inhabiting Pir Lasura National Park, northeastern Himalayan region, Pakistan

Abstract

Studies on dietary habits and niche overlap of sympatric carnivore species can be vital for their conservation. They can reveal the potential level of inter‐specific competition and prey species overlap, thus highlighting species specific conservation requirements. We investigated diet composition of two such sympatric carnivore species Asiatic jackal Canis aureus and the Kashmir hill fox Vulpes vulpes grifithii in and around Pir Lasura National Park, in northeastern Himalayan region of Pakistan by using fecal analysis after confirming the carnivore species by genetic analyses. The scats of the two carnivores were collected during four different seasons of the year and analyzed in the laboratory. Results revealed sixteen prey species in the diet of Asiatic jackal and 21 species in the diet of the Kashmir hill fox. For Asiatic jackal, wild prey contributed approximately 18%, whereas 60% of the diet comprised of domestic prey. For Kashmir hill fox, the wild prey consumption was approximately 18%, while consumption of domestic prey was 51% and plants contributed 28%. Niche breadth of the Asiatic jackal was broader (0.78) compared to Kashmir hill fox (0.31). Niche overlap between these two sympatric carnivores was found to be a rather high 0.81.

Phylogenetic status and diet of red fox (Vulpes vulpes griffithii) inhabiting Ayubia National Park, Pakistan

“…Many other studies have highlighted the consumption of plant-based material in red fox diet (Murdoch et al, 2009(Murdoch et al, , D'hondt et al, 2011Díaz-Ruiz et al, 2013;Cancio et al, 2017;Reshamwala et al, 2018). In Pir Lasura National Park in Pakistan, red foxes showed that plants made up 27.54% of the total frequency across 92 scats (Akrim et al, 2019). Interestingly, one of the most consumed plants by red foxes in our study was Chirata (Swertia sp.…”

“…In areas near human habitations, red foxes may utilize human-derived resources that can have broad effects on the ecosystem, such as altering the red fox's role as a seed disperser (Cancio et al, 2017) and shifting red fox density in the landscape (Panek and Bresinski, 2002). The only other study on red fox diet in Pakistan was from Pir Lasura National Park in the Himalayan foothills of Pakistan, which red foxes were found to consume wild prey (18% of diet), domestic prey (51%) and plants (28%) (Akrim et al, 2019). In this study, we investigated the occurrence of red fox in the Ayubia National Park, the distribution of red fox maternal lineages in Ayubia National Park and across Northern Pakistan, and red fox diet composition in the study area.…”

Jackal in hide: detection dogs show first success in the quest for golden jackal (Canis aureus) scats

“…For many species, the analysis of fresh scats provides a secure, reliable and non-invasive method to receive genetic information (Frantz et al 2003;Janečka et al 2008;DeMatteo et al 2014). The substantially overlapping food niches of closely related species (Lanszki and Heltai 2010;Akrim et al 2019;Grimm-Seyfarth et al 2019) complicate the identification of scats based on morphological criteria (Foran et al 1997;Baines et al 2013;Spitzer et al 2019). In some cases, only DNA analyses can remove doubts about the origin of collected scats.…”