Dietary preference of striped hyena in the anthropogenic landscape of Rajasthan, India

Understanding the dietary patterns of large carnivores is a key feature of their niche and addresses their ecological role in ecosystems. The striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) is a large carnivore distributed in many arid and semi-arid regions of the world and its diet is largely understudied in its range. We studied the dietary patterns of striped hyenas in the anthropogenic landscape, located in the semi-arid region of Rajasthan, India. We collected and analyzed a total number of 127 scat samples from November 2019 to February 2022. The relative biomass and frequency of occurrence of the large-sized prey species (>30 kg) were higher in the striped hyena's diet. However, the species requires a wide range of smaller prey to enrich its diet and a total of twenty-one prey species have been recorded in the hyena diet. The diet diversity of the striped hyena computed by the Shannon-Weiner Index (H) was 3.28. The proportion of prey in the scats indicated that very large to large and mediumsized prey accounted for 95.7% of total dietary biomass and was mostly preferred by striped hyenas, which was probably consumed through scavenging. Livestock (cows, buffaloes, sheep, camels, and dogs) accounted for 56.54% of total dietary biomass. The higher amount of presence of livestock mammals in the scats suggests that striped hyenas may frequently visit human settlement areas, which could be influenced by high carcass availability. The presence of small prey such as mongoose, hares, foxes, and rats indicate that the striped hyenas might partially hunt the smaller animals or opportunistic feed. This study added to our understanding of the striped hyena's feeding ecology in areas where anthropogenic food is quite abundant compared to wild prey. Hence hyenas benefit from anthropogenic food scavenging, whereas humans benefit from the non-lethal nature of hyenas and waste removal.