Assessment of African Leopard and Spotted Hyena Diet and Prey Base Along Burguret Trail in Mt. Kenya Forest, Kenya

Abstract

Mount Kenya has known populations of both African leopard and spotted hyena. However, based on habitat alone; one would expect the prey base available on the mountain to differ from savannah systems where the two apex predators are most commonly found. Considering climate change impacts, such as decline in prey base, or range shift of species, then leopards and hyenas may also shift to different areas within the mountain or may not continue to inhabit the mountain. Therefore, this study sought to assess the diversity of leopard and hyena diet and available prey base, along Burguret trail of Mt. Kenya. It also investigated the differences in the diversity of leopard versus hyena prey species, variation in diet of both leopard and hyena across various habitat types, and determine dietary overlaps between the two carnivores across habitat types. Systematic sampling design was used to lay the sampling points across altitudinal gradient at 100 m intervals while establishing a 20 by 20 m plot on each sampling point where thorough search and collection of the scats was done. Leopard and hyena prey base was documented using 50 camera traps (Reconnyx game trail camera) installed at 300 m intervals along the same transect and during the same timeframe as the scat collection. A total of 28 mammal species were documented in the study area within the different vegetation zones. The leopard diet did not vary significantly with the habitat type (F = 1.508; df = 5; P = 0.49). A paired t-test to examine differences in consumption rates of different prey consumed by both leopard and spotted hyena within the various habitat types confirmed that there was significant difference in the consumption of Mt. Kenya rock hyrax (t 0.05,2, 8 = 5.7 , P = 0.009 < 0.05), tropical vlei rat ( t 0.05,2, 8 = 1.89 , P = 0.04 < 0.05), Suni (t 0.05,2, 8 = 2.06, P = 0.006 < 0.05) and bush pig (t 0.05,2, 8 = 1.5, P = 0.03 < 0.05). However the two predators had a dietary niche overlap index of 0.19. DNA metabarcoding was crucial in classification of predator scat samples. DNA metabarcoding results revealed that Crocuta crocuta scat samples contained a majority of Suiidae sequences (42.3%), followed by Cercopithecidae (25.6%), Bovidae (15.5%), Soricidae (8.6%), Procaviidae (4.8%), Muridae (2.4%), Lorisidae (0.5%), and Equiidae (0.2%).Within the leopard scat samples, the highest proportion of reads were Dendrohyrax (32.2%), followed by Colobus (23.0%), Myosorex (14.9%), Procavia (14.0%), Syncerus (10.6%), Murid rodent (3.0%), Potamochoerus (0.5%), and Cercopithicus (0.5%). There were also a few reads detected for Tragelaphus, Equus, Phacochoerus, Crocidura, Neotraous, Loxodonta, Cephalophus, Ovis, and Orycteropus. The leopards utilizing the various vegetation zones within the study area confirms their plasticity of feeding behavior that allows them to occupy structurally diverse home ranges. Hyenas feeding on genets is an indicator that top predators have impacts on diverse populations of small carnivores whenever they coexist. Application of good conservation strategies towards the apex carnivores, can promote conservation of other species within an area, and diet results assist in prediction of diet in other mountain areas where dietary information is lacking as well as assist wildlife managers understand predator-prey interactions.