Fig 1.
Microscopically prepared hair: A—Medulla of Yak (X40); B—Medulla of Blue sheep (X 40).
Table 1.
Relative frequency of different kinds of prey in the diet of snow leopard in the three study areas: Lower Mustang (LM) and Upper Manang (UM) in Annapurna Conservation Area, and Sagarmatha National Park4 (SNP) in both summer and winter: N, number of scat samples; RF (%), relative frequency; NA, not available.
The most frequently consumed prey at each place and season is marked in bold. Nak is yak calf.
Table 2.
Relative biomass of the different kinds of prey consumed (RBC) by snow leopard in three study areas: Lower Mustang (LM) and Upper Manang (UM) in Annapurna Conservation Area, and Sagarmatha National Park (SNP).
NA—not available.
Table 3.
Relative Abundance Index (RAI) of the different kinds of prey determined using camera traps; N = total trap nights and NA—not available.
Table 4.
Prey selection by snow leopard in the whole study area, throughout the year and seasonally.
Table includes proportions of different kinds of available prey (Πi), Bonferroni’s confidence intervals and standardized preference index (Bi) are shown following Manly et al. (2002). The large wild prey category includes blue sheep, Himalayan tahr and musk deer; small wild prey includes pika, hare, rat and voles; Mustelids are weasels and stone marten; large cattle includes cow, ox and horses; medium domestic prey are goat and dogs. In the column “Selection”, (+) means preference, (-) avoidance, and null random choice.
Table 5.
Prey selection by snow leopard in the three areas studied.
Table includes proportions of the different kinds of available prey (Πi). Bonferroni’s confidence intervals and standardized preference index (Bi) are shown following Manly et al. (2002). Prey categories are the same as in Table 4. In the column “Selection”, (+) means preference, (-) avoidance, and null random choice.
Table 6.
Prey size selection by snow leopard in the whole study area.
Table includes proportions of different kinds of available prey by size (Πi). Bonferroni’s confidence intervals and standardized preference index (Bi) are shown following Manly et al. (2002). Among prey categories, Large includes species weighing above 40 kg (blue sheep, Himalayan tahr, yak/nak, cow, ox, horse), Medium includes prey between 10–40 kg (musk deer, goat and dog) and Small refers to prey weighing below 10 kg (woolly hare, vole, rat spp., pika, weasel spp., stone marten and birds). In the column “Selection”, (+) means preference, (-) avoidance, and null random choice.
Table 7.
Prey selection of snow leopard by size in the three areas studied.
Table includes proportions of the different kinds of available prey (Πi). Bonferroni’s confidence intervals and standardized preference index (Bi), following Manly et al. (2002). Prey categories are the same as in Table 6. In the column “Selection”, (+) means preference, (-) avoidance, and null random choice.
Table 8.
Selection of wild vs. domestic prey by snow leopard in the three areas in winter.
Table includes proportions of available prey by size (Πi). Bonferroni’s confidence intervals and standardized preference index (Bi), following Manly et al. (2002). Among prey categories, Wild includes blue sheep or Himalayan tahr, musk deer, woolly hare, vole, rat spp., pika, weasel spp. and stone marten and Domestic includes yak, cow, ox, horse, goat and dog. In the column “Selection”, (+) means preference, (-) avoidance, and null random choice.
Table 9.
Prey selection by snow leopard in SNP.
Table includes proportions of the different kinds of available prey (Πi). Bonferroni’s confidence intervals and standardized preference index (Bi), following Manly et al. (2002).