Sex-specific dietary specialization in a terrestrial apex predator, the leopard, revealed by stable isotope analysis

Voigt, Christian (author), Krofel, Miha (author)

Apex predators in terrestrial ecosystems, such as leopards in the African savanna,feed on a wide variety of prey species, yet it is unknown whether individuals spe-cialize on certain prey, and whether specialization changes with body traits. Here,we asked whether individual specialization of adult leopards (Panthera pardus ) var-ies with sex, body mass, body length and age classes. We used the variation ofstable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in 643 segments of whiskers as a tempo-ral record of past diets and established isotopic dietary niches for 36 adult leopards(18 males, 18 females). Based on a variance analysis for stable carbon isotoperatios, we found that between-individual variation was larger than within-individualvariation, indicating a high degree of overall specialization within the studied leop-ards. Female adult leopards exhibited larger isotopic dietary niche widths than maleadult leopards. Isotopic niche width did not vary with body mass, body length orage. Our data suggest a difference in the level of specialization between the sexes,which might be explained by more opportunistic feeding of small-sized femaleleopards, most likely connected with a higher use of small prey species of differentisotopic composition. Inter-sexual resource partitioning likely facilitates territorysharing between the sexes.

• Language: English
• Keywords: leopard, Panthera pardus, predation, dietary specialization, stable isotope analysis, Namibia, Africa
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: In print
• Number of pages: Str. 1-7
• Numbering: #Vol. #[v tisku], #iss. #[v tisku]
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-101167
• UDC: 630*15:630*14(6-13)
• ISSN on article: 0952-8369
• DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12566
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5073318
• Publication date in RUL: 08.05.2018

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of zoology
• Shortened title: J. zool.
• Publisher: Zoological Society of London
• COBISS.SI-ID: 6941401

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.
• Licensing start date: 08.05.2018

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: leopard, Panthera pardus, plenjenje, prehrana, analiza stabilnih izotopov, Namibija, Afrika