Diet of Leopards Panthera pardus fusca inhabiting protected areas and human-dominated landscapes in Goa, India

Abstract

The diet of leopards occupying human-dominated and protected areas (PAs) in Goa, India was analyzed through scat analysis. A total of 117 scats, 55 from wildlife sanctuaries/ national parks and 62 from human-dominated areas were collected and analyzed. Analysis of 55 scats from protected forest revealed the presence of only wild prey in the leopard diet, whereas 61 percent of scats collected from human-dominated areas consisted of only wild prey, 29 percent of domesticated animals, and 10 percent a mixture of both wild prey & domesticated animals. Of the prey biomass consumed in human-dominated areas, domestic animals constituted only 33 percent of the leopard diet. Among all leopard scats, 71 percent contained only one prey species, 28 percent contained two species, and 1 percent contained three.