Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya)

[Sully]

Edge effects and distribution of prey forage resources

influence how an apex predator utilizes Sri Lanka’s largest
protected area

Abstract:

Apex carnivores are integral to effectively functioning ecosystems, but their popula-
tions are declining worldwide. To ensure the long-term viability of top carnivore
populations, it is important to understand their ecology and behavior throughout
their remaining range, including in protected areas, as these can act as vital
refuges. In Sri Lanka, an endangered, endemic leopard sub-species (Panthera par-
dus kotiya) is the apex predator, and while its island-wide distribution is inuenced
by forest cover and protection level of the landscape, ecological and anthropogenic
inuences of ner scale landscape utilization are poorly understood. In the interior
of Sri Lanka’s largest protected area, Wilpattu National Park, we used remote cam-
eras and a spatially explicit capture-recapture methodology to estimate leopard pop-
ulation density and quantify relative prey availability. We then employed linear
models to compare four alternative hypotheses proposed to identify factors inu-
encing observed leopard habitat selection within the PA. Adult leopard density was
estimated at 10.4 individuals/100 km
2
which is at the higher end of the global
spectrum of recorded leopard densities, and only marginally lower than other Sri
Lankan National Parks which appear to have considerably higher available prey
abundance. Leopard site utilization increased with increasing distance from park
boundaries, suggesting the presence of edge effects due to anthropogenic distur-
bance. Leopard occurrence was also higher close to grazing lawns used by prey
but not areas of higher prey abundance, evidence of ‘leap-frogging’, whereby carni-
vores bias movement toward spatially anchored preferred resources of their prey
instead of prey directly. The relatively high core area leopard density, combined
with avoidance of boundary areas and frequent observation of injuries suggests the
possibility of density-dependent intra-specic competition and needs to be further
investigated. These results illuminate essential aspects of leopard ecology in a key
part of its remaining Sri Lankan range, providing important insights for protected
area management Reply