Livestock subsidise tiger diets in a central Indian corridor: implications for human-wildlife conflict management and conservation planning

Suvankar Biswas , Sparsh Dubey, Pranav Chanchani, Nidhi Rajput, Kajal Kumar Jadav, Upendra Kumar Dubey, Deepti Gupta , Soumen Dey, L Krishnamoorthy, Subharanjan Sen

Large carnivores, like tigers, maintain a balance within their respective ecosystem and play a critical role. However, due to their life history needs and extensive overlap with humans, they face significant threats across their distribution. These threats become severe when they inhabit non-protected areas like corridors and kill livestock. In this study, the food habits of tiger were assessed across the multi-use Kanha-Pench corridor (KPC) in Central Indian Landscape. The prey species were identified through tricho-taxonomy using 146 genetically and morphologically confirmed tiger faecal samples. A total of 17 prey species were identified, which is much higher when compared to other available studies. Additionally, tigers were also found to prey on five species (sloth bear, striped hyena, smooth-coated otter, small Indian civet, and Indian grey mongoose), which are often rare in the tiger diet. Among 17 prey species, six large-bodied prey were found to be contributed in 86.98% (relative frequency of occurrence) and 92.71% (biomass) of the tiger diet. Cattle was identified as the most preferred prey species followed by chital and nilgai. Spatial analysis identified four cattle predation hotspots across KPC. This study highlighted the opportunistic behaviour of tigers and their high dependency on cattle when it persists in a multi-use habitat. Therefore, these findings have significant management implication to conserve this large carnivore in a multi-use and non-protected habitat.