Assessing Asiatic cheetah's individual diet using metabarcoding and its implication for conservation.

ABSTRACT: Knowledge on diet composition allows defining well-targeted conservation measures of large carnivores. Little is known about ecology of critically endangered Asiatic cheetah, especially the overall diet and its possible regional differences. We used cheetah scats, metabarcoding technique and microsatellite markers to assess the individual and overall diet composition of the species across its entire range in Asia. Cheetahs were primarily predating on mouflon; following by ibex, cape hare and goitered gazelle. Despite their high availability, small-sized livestock was never detected. Goitered gazelles were only detected in an area where the habitat is mainly flatlands. In hilly areas, mouflon was the most frequent prey item taken. Ibex was typically taken in rugged terrain, but mouflon was

SUBMITTER: Khalatbari L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9259742 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature