Data from: Seasonal diet partition among top predators of a small island, Iriomotejima island in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan

In general, small islands lack predators because species at higher trophic
levels often cannot survive. However, two predators—the Iriomote cat
Prionailurus bengalensis iriomotensis, and the Crested Serpent Eagle
Spilornis cheela perplexus—live on Iriomotejima Island in the Ryukyu
Archipelago, which covers an area of approximately 284 square kilometers.
To understand how these two top predators coexist on such a small island
with limited resources, we focused on their seasonal feeding habits which
are considered crucial for survival in such an island ecosystem. To
compare the diets of the Iriomote cat and Crested Serpent Eagle, we used
DNA metabarcoding analysis of their fecal samples. In the summer, we
identified 16 prey items from Iriomote cat fecal samples, and 15 Crested
Serpent Eagle fecal samples. In the winter, we identified 37 and 14 prey
items, respectively. Using a non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS)
and a permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), our
study reveals significant differences in the diet composition at the order
level between the predators during both seasons. Furthermore, although
some prey items at the species-to-order level overlapped between the two
predators, the frequency of occurrence of most prey items differed between
them in both seasons. These results suggest that this difference in diets
was one of the reasons why the Iriomote cat and the Crested Serpent Eagle
coexisted on such a small island.