Survey Diet of Asiatic Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus by scat analysis method in Bafgh protected area, central Iran

Document Type : Nutrition

Authors

1 Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural resource, Tehran University, Karaj, Iran

2 Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural resource, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Golestan, Iran.

Abstract

Iran as the last shelter population of the Asiatic cheetah in the world. However, relatively few individuals of this subspecies have been recorded in the last3 decades (50 to 60 collards). Food habits are an important aspect of the ecological niche of carnivores. Here, we studied the diet of the Asiatic cheetah using scat analysis in Bafgh protected area. This area in comparison of the other habitat of the Asiatic cheetah is mountainous.  Wild goat is predominant wild ungulate in this area. The result of the analysis of 51 scats of Asiatic cheetah showed that this species preyed mainly on ungulates, which most consumed ungulate respectively are wild goat (frequency of occurrence: 43.14%, relative biomass: 40%), wild sheep (frequency of occurrence: 43.18% , relative biomass: -36.85%) and chinkara (frequency of occurrence: 43.18% , relative biomass: 14.25%) also result showed that after ungulate most consumed prey is livestock. 

Keywords

Journal of Animal Environment
Volume 8, Issue 2
August 2016
Pages 1-8

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