Leopards Exhibit Nuanced Predation Patterns but Rely on Wild Prey in a Human-Dominated Agricultural Landscape in the...

The endemic Sri Lankan leopard is the island's apex predator, living both within and outside protected areas. In unprotected, shared landscapes, it is important to understand leopard diet and predation patterns to foster long-term human-leopard coexistence. This study examines the diet of leopards in the human-dominated tea estate landscape of the Upper Kelani River Basin, in Sri Lanka's Central Highlands. Study goals were to evaluate prey composition, diversity, importance and selection, and to investigate the role of domestic species in leopard diet here. Analysis of 107 leopard scat samples showed leopard feeding behavior was best characterized as generalist and opportunistic, with a wide-ranging diet (H' = 2.89) consisting of 17 evenly consumed (D = 0.94) prey species. While the diminutive black-naped hare (2.5 kg) was most available and most frequently detected in the diet (19.8% of samples), the importance of medium-sized prey was highlighted, with barking deer (25.5 kg) well utilized (13.9% of samples), representing > 20% of total biomass consumed and showing positive selection (0.281). Moderate selectivity was observed for sambar (0.410), the system's largest potential prey (160-215 kg), which may be expected for meso-carnivores in the absence of dominant intraguild competition. Primates are a key resource here (23% of samples and biomass) despite being uncommon in tea estates, suggesting preference by leopards. Targeted research to quantify primate abundance and selection is recommended. Overall, wild species represented > 85% of leopard diet, suggesting the landscape retains a substantial natural prey base. Domestic dogs, though common and widely perceived as targeted by leopards here, were moderately avoided (-0.378), a positive outcome for human-leopard coexistence. These findings highlight the leopards' generalist predation tendencies, while suggesting additional complexity and signaling selectivity in predation patterns. Results underscore the necessity of preserving wild prey abundance and diversity to facilitate coexistence in anthropogenically transformed environments.