Assessing Asiatic cheetah’s individual diet using metabarcoding and its implication for conservation

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 microsa...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Abolghasemi, H. (Author), Breitenmoser, U. (Author), Brito, J.C (Author), Egeter, B. (Author), Ghadirian, T. (Author), Hakimi, E. (Author), Jowkar, H. (Author), Khalatbari, L. (Author), Khaleghi Hamidi, A.H (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Research 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
LEADER 02661nam a2200445Ia 4500
001 10.1038-s41598-022-15065-1
008 220718s2022 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 20452322 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a Assessing Asiatic cheetah’s individual diet using metabarcoding and its implication for conservation 
260 0 |b Nature Research  |c 2022 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15065-1 
520 3 |a 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. © 2022, The Author(s). 
650 0 4 |a animal experiment 
650 0 4 |a article 
650 0 4 |a Asia 
650 0 4 |a bioinformatics 
650 0 4 |a carnivore 
650 0 4 |a cheetah 
650 0 4 |a controlled study 
650 0 4 |a diet composition 
650 0 4 |a gazelle 
650 0 4 |a habitat 
650 0 4 |a human 
650 0 4 |a ibex 
650 0 4 |a livestock 
650 0 4 |a long term survival 
650 0 4 |a microsatellite marker 
650 0 4 |a mouflon 
650 0 4 |a nonhuman 
650 0 4 |a pipeline 
700 1 |a Abolghasemi, H.  |e author 
700 1 |a Breitenmoser, U.  |e author 
700 1 |a Brito, J.C.  |e author 
700 1 |a Egeter, B.  |e author 
700 1 |a Ghadirian, T.  |e author 
700 1 |a Hakimi, E.  |e author 
700 1 |a Jowkar, H.  |e author 
700 1 |a Khalatbari, L.  |e author 
700 1 |a Khaleghi Hamidi, A.H.  |e author 
773 |t Scientific Reports