CIBIO, Centro de Investigação Em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade Do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.
Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade Do Porto, 4099-002, Porto, Portugal.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 6;12(1):11403. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15065-1.
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 still the most frequently consumed item in these habitats. High consumption of mouflon in comparison to goitered gazelle suggests that human pressure on lowland habitats has possibly forced Asiatic cheetahs to occupy suboptimal habitats where gazelles are less abundant. The protection of flatlands and the removal of livestock from them are needed to ensure the long-term survival of Asiatic cheetah. The laboratory and bioinformatics pipelines used in this study are replicable and can be used to address similar questions in other threatened carnivores.
对饮食组成的了解可以帮助我们制定出有针对性的大型食肉动物保护措施。极度濒危的亚洲猎豹的生态，尤其是其整体饮食及其可能存在的区域差异，人们知之甚少。我们使用猎豹粪便、代谢组学技术和微卫星标记来评估该物种在亚洲整个范围内的个体和整体饮食组成。猎豹主要捕食摩弗伦羊；其次是野山羊、赤鹿和大羚羊。尽管小牲畜的供应量很高，但从未检测到。大羚羊仅在以平原为主的地区被发现。在丘陵地区，摩弗伦羊是最常被猎取的猎物。野山羊通常在崎岖的地形中被猎取，但在这些栖息地中，摩弗伦羊仍然是最常被食用的猎物。与大羚羊相比，摩弗伦羊的大量消耗表明，人类对低地生境的压力可能迫使亚洲猎豹占据不太理想的生境，那里的大羚羊数量较少。需要保护平原，并将牲畜从平原上移走，以确保亚洲猎豹的长期生存。本研究中使用的实验室和生物信息学管道是可复制的，可以用于解决其他受威胁的食肉动物的类似问题。
