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Tambling, C.J.; Laurence, S.D.; Bellan, S.E.; Cameron, E.Z.; du Toit, J.T.; Getz, W.M.
Estimating carnivoran diets usind a combination of carcass observations and scats from GPS clusters
2011 Journal of Zoology (286): 102-109
Scat analysis is one of the most frequently used methods to assess carnivoran diets, and global positioning system (GPS) cluster methods are increasingly being used to locate feeding sites for large carnivorans. However, both methods have inherent biases that limit their use. GPS methods to locate kill sites are biased towards large carcasses, while scat analysis overestimates the biomass consumed from smaller prey. We combined carcass observations and scats collected along known movement routes, assessed using GPS data from four African lion _Panthera leo _prides in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, to determine how a combination of these two datasets change diet estimates. As expected, using carcasses alone underestimated the number of feeding events on small species, primarily impala _Aepyceros melampus _and warthog _Phacochoerus africanus_, in our case, by more than 50%, and thus significantly underestimated the biomass consumed per pride per day in comparison with when the diet was assessed using carcass observations alone. We show that an approach that supplements carcass observations with scats that enables the identification of potentially missed feeding events increases the estimates of food intake rates for large carnivorans, with possible ramifications for predator-prey interaction studies dealing with biomass intake rate.
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