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The present study aimed to assess the population density, structure, and population change of nine wild prey species in the semi-arid landscape of Saurashtra, Gujarat, India. A total of eight sites, representing a gradient from highly protected woodlands and grasslands to unreserved grasslands, were selected for sampling. We employed the road transect methodology under a distance sampling framework to achieve our objectives. We evaluated the realized growth rate of the Gir ungulate population through linear regression analysis. Our findings revealed that deer species exhibited higher density and biomass in woodlands compared to grasslands and coastal forests. On the other hand, antelopes showed higher density and biomass in grasslands and coastal forests compared to woodlands. The density gradient of wild prey species was influenced by various factors, including habitat structure, social organization, grouping tendencies, and topography. Over the last four decades, the population of wild prey species in Gir showed minimal changes. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of wild prey species' density and biomass patterns at the landscape level. The inclusion of findings from ecologically significant and unique areas, such as coastal forests, further enhances the importance of this study. The implications of this study extend beyond the conservation of wild prey species alone; they also contribute to the conservation of the large carnivore guild in the Saurashtra landscape., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Ram et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Time and space are essential niche dimensions along which species tend to coexist. We assessed spatiotemporal resource partitioning between leopards and lions and hypothesized the differential use of spatiotemporal resources by leopards with respect to lions. We used a systematic camera trap survey to collect the data at 50 sites. The data were analyzed using overlap indices, and non-parametric test statistics to assess the spatiotemporal associations. Leopard and lion were crepuscular and nocturnal in their activity pattern. They did not segregate temporally and showed substantially high overlap and strong temporal association. Leopard segregates with lion spatially by overlapping less and showing no association in space use at specific camera trap sites. Leopards showed preference for dense habitats, while the lion preferred both dense and open habitats. Leopard showed moderate-overlap and positive association with key prey species, i.e., chital and sambar. Lion, however showed low site-specific overlap and negative association with its crucial prey species, i.e., sambar and wild pig. We conclude that site-specific spatial partitioning along with differential affinities for habitat is helping leopards to partition their spatio-temporal resources with lions and hence facilitate coexistence of leopards with lions in Gir forest., Competing Interests: No authors have competing interests.

Habitat destruction is one of the major causes of large carnivore decline worldwide. The present study assesses the ecological and anthropogenic determinants of site use by leopard and lion in the Gir forest. Data on leopard and lion site use was collected through camera traps and modeled using prey availability, proximity to water, woody cover, proximity to human habitation and grazing intensity as the predictor variable. A generalized linear model was used to find the effect of a predictor variable on leopard and lion site use intensity. Leopard site use intensity was positively associated with chital, nilgai, and sambar availability, and grazing intensity while negatively associated with proximity to water. Lion site use intensity was positively associated with nilgai availability, woody cover and grazing intensity while negatively associated with sambar availability, and proximity to water. The present study indicated that habitat might have a substantial role in determining prey–predator spatial relationships. Also, humans provide resources such as artificial water holes could potentially affect the distribution of both the predators in our study area. The present study could be useful while making management decisions in Gir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative studies on the diet of large felids in protected areas (PAs) and surrounding multi-use landscapes are important for their conservation. The Asiatic lion is an endangered felid distributed in Gir PA and the surrounding multi-use land matrix. Based on scat analyses, we assessed the dietary composition of Asiatic lions. The frequency of occurrence (FOO), biomass consumption model, dietary niche breadth and dietary overlap index was used to quantify diet. The Asiatic lion ate more wild prey (74%) than domestic livestock (26%) in the Gir PA. In contrast, lion diets comprised 51% wild prey and 42% domestic livestock in the multi-use land matrix. Sambar contributed most (38%) to the diet in PAs, while blue bull most (29%) in the multi-use land matrix. However, diet diversity and niche breadth were similar between these two areas. The dietary overlap in the lions' diet between these two areas was 0.52. The results suggest that large-size wild ungulates are the main prey species in Gir PA, while in the surrounding multi-use land matrix, both large wild ungulates and domestic livestock are the main prey. The present study may help future lion conservation management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]