Journal of Biology and Nature

Hunting patterns and feeding-behaviour of an apex predator in a region relies on the real-time studies of its habitat ecology and current status of available prey-base. Present study investigates the comparative statistical analysis of the ecological and behavioural studies conducted on Indian Panthers (Panthera pardus fusca) in Sisarma Banki Forest (SBF) and Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) of Udaipur in Southern Rajasthan, India in between 2014 and 2018 to understand and unfold its dietary-patterns. A total of 150 scat samples of Indian Panthers were collected, processed and examined accordingly, to record the related forage data in the form of number and percent frequency values of prey species in Indian Panther’s diet for season-wise and species-wise aspects. Further investigation by one-way ANOVA test for both study areas of SBF and SWS to evaluate and analyze the significant variation of these values across seasons for understanding seasonal as well as species level differences and similarities in the study areas revealed variations in prey-base number and percent frequency in terms of consumption at both seasonal and species level. Significant seasonal (F=4.484, p=0.014) and species-level (F=3.136, p=0.001) differences were observed in prey frequency. Collaboratively, both the study areas SBF and SWS showed similarities in domestic prey-base frequencies, but there were significant differences in the consumption of wild prey-base frequencies. Shannon-Wiener Diversity Indices for both the study areas of SBF and SWS ranging between 2 to 3 suggested towards higher levels of diversity and rich species configuration in both the ecosystems, with adequate evenness and relative abundance indicating healthy ecosystem. All these investigations help in efficient and better habitat conservation operations and connecting the position of Indian Panthers ecological behaviour, establishing them as generalist rather than specialist in its dietary patterns. These results underscore the impact of habitat type and legal status on the foraging behavior of leopards, suggesting that sanctuary status provides a different prey demographic compared to reserve forests.