Foraging ecology of Eurasian lynx populations in southwest Asia: Conservation implications for a diet specialist.

ABSTRACT: Intraspecific variation in key traits of widespread species can be hard to predict, if populations have been very little studied in most of the distribution range. Asian populations of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), one of the most widespread felids worldwide, are such a case in point. We investigated the diet of Eurasian lynx from feces collected Mediterranean, mixed forest-steppe, and subalpine ecosystems of Turkey. We studied prey preferences and functional responses using prey densities obtained from Random Encounter Modelling. Our analysis revealed that the main prey was brown hare (Lepus europaeus) in all three areas (78%-99% of biomass consumed) and lynx showed a strong preference for brown hare (Chesson's selectivity index, α = 0.90-0.99). Cannibalism contribut

SUBMITTER: Mengulluoglu D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6194280 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature