Rainforest Leopards

[Pckts]

Leopard prey choice in the Congo Basin rainforest suggests exploitative competition with human bushmeat hunters
P. Henschel1 , L. T. B. Hunter1 , L. Coad2 , K. A. Abernethy3,4 & M. Muhlenberg ¨ 5 1 Panthera, New York, NY, USA 2 Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 3 School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, UK 4 Institut de Recherches en Ecologie Tropicale, Libreville, Gabon 5 Centre for Nature Conservation, Georg-August University Gottingen, Von-Siebold-Straße, G ¨ ottingen, Germany


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"We found no leopard scats at site L1, and 32–83 scats at the remaining three study sites, with the number of scats collected per site increasing with distance from settlements (Table 2). Across sites, 99.1% of prey items in scats could be identified to the genus level; only the medium-sized duikers could not be identified to the species level and were therefore grouped as ‘red’ duikers (Cephalophus spp.). Eight to 17 prey taxa were identified at sites L2–L4, and leopards used exclusively mammalian prey (Table 2). At all sites, ‘red’ duikers were the most frequently used prey taxon, followed by brush-tailed porcupine Atherurus africanus at site L2 and red river hog Potamochoerus porcus at sites L3 and L4 (Table 2). In terms of the relative biomass consumed, ‘red’ duikers were the single most important prey taxon at sites L2 and L3, whereas red river hogs were more important at site L4, accounting for almost 50% of the biomass cosumed (Table 3.) Reply