IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Farhadinia, M.S.; Moqanaki, E.M.; Hosseini-Zavarei, F. | |
| Predator-prey relationships in a middle Asian Montane steppe: Persian leopard versus urial wild sheep in Northeastern Iran | |
| 2014 European Journal of Wildlife Research (60): 341-349 | |
Management controversies arise when both of the prey and predator in an ecosystem are species of conservation concern. We investigated trophic interactions between the endangered Persian leopard (_Panthera pardus saxicolor_) and a declining mountain ungulate, urial wild sheep (_Ovis vignei_), on a high-altitude steppe of Iran. During two consecutive photo-trapping seasons of 1,300 nights in total, a minimum population of four adult leopards (one female and three males) was documented. Scat analysis indicated that urial wild sheep was the staple of the leopard diet with 48.44%of total biomass consumed. Remains of domestic livestock in leopard scats were negligible yet alarming (14.53 % biomass consumed), followed by wild pigs (8.13 %) and wild goat (1.26 %). Financial costs of leopard depredation to livestock breeders during our study period were comparatively lower than livestock- leopard conflict hotspots across Iran. Using distance sampling, urial density was 15.8 individuals km-2 (ñSE 6.2), and a total biomass of 47,621.5 kg for wild ungulates in the study area was estimated.We estimated that the annual removal rate of urial by leopards during our study period was 9.4 % of the total urial population. We suggest that continuous monitoring of the leopard and prey populations to assess predation impact should be considered, particularly in areas where a single species comprises a remarkable proportion of the leopard diet. In the meantime, assessing probable conflicts with local communities is recommended as a parallel management action to ensure long-term human-leopard coexistence. Our findings will aid wildlife managers in prey-depleted arid environments of western Asia to identify susceptible wild prey populations to predation by large carnivores; hence, significantly contribute in development and implementation of effective conservation measures to mitigate management conflicts. |
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