Pantheraman
Well-Known Member
"For the endangered dhole, one of the primary reasons for the decline in the distributional range has been a decrease in the natural prey availability due to hunting, poaching and competition with livestock. "
"On examining the faecal remains or 'scats' of dholes, our findings indicate that throughout the landscape, the two wild ungulates – sambar (61.08 per cent) and chital (19.08 per cent) are the primary prey of dholes."
"We found that dholes killed more chitals, followed by sambars, wild pigs, nilgai, barking deer, among others. In NNTR, sambar and chital adults were killed relatively more, whereas comparatively more fawns were harvested in TATR.
We also found that larger packs often killed adult prey, whereas smaller packs mainly harvested fawns. TATR has a high co-predator density, compared to NNTR.
Our research suggests that reduced intra-guild competition due to extremely low densities of a dominant predator like the tiger, and not just large pack sizes, may enable dholes to hunt large prey in NNTR."
What’s on the menu for India’s most endangered canid?
The actual paper: Feeding ecology of the endangered Asiatic wild dogs (Cuon alpinus) across tropical forests of the Central Indian Landscape
"On examining the faecal remains or 'scats' of dholes, our findings indicate that throughout the landscape, the two wild ungulates – sambar (61.08 per cent) and chital (19.08 per cent) are the primary prey of dholes."
"We found that dholes killed more chitals, followed by sambars, wild pigs, nilgai, barking deer, among others. In NNTR, sambar and chital adults were killed relatively more, whereas comparatively more fawns were harvested in TATR.
We also found that larger packs often killed adult prey, whereas smaller packs mainly harvested fawns. TATR has a high co-predator density, compared to NNTR.
Our research suggests that reduced intra-guild competition due to extremely low densities of a dominant predator like the tiger, and not just large pack sizes, may enable dholes to hunt large prey in NNTR."
What’s on the menu for India’s most endangered canid?
The actual paper: Feeding ecology of the endangered Asiatic wild dogs (Cuon alpinus) across tropical forests of the Central Indian Landscape