Metabarcoding analysis provides insight into the link between prey and plant intake in a large alpine cat carnivore, the snow leopard

Species of the family Felidae (a group represented by cats) are thought to be obligate carnivores, specialized for hunting and consuming other animals. However, the detection of plants in the feces of felids raises questions about the role of plants in their diet. This is particularly true for the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), a big cat native to central and South Asia's high mountains. Our study aimed to comprehensively identify the prey and plants consumed by snow leopards as well as six other sympatric mammals. We applied DNA metabarcoding methods on 126 fecal samples collected from the Sarychat-Ertash Nature Reserve in Kyrgyzstan. We found that among the three most common plant families in snow leopard feces, Tamaricaceae (genus Myricaraia) was consumed often by snow leopards. The genus Myricaria frequently appeared in samples lacking any animal prey DNA, indicating that snow leopards might have consumed this plant especially when their digestive tracts were empty. We also observed..., , , # Metabarcoding analysis insights into the link between prey and plant intake in the alpine large cat carnivore, snow leopard

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j9kd51cjp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j9kd51cjp)

These files are datasets and scripts to generate data in \"Metabarcoding analysis insights into the link between prey and plant intake in snow leopard.\"

Illumina sequencing data was demultiplexed using bcl2fastq and Claident. After trimming primer sequences using Skewer, error collection, and OTU collation were conducted using scripts in miseq_*.Rmd files.*

*Taxon assignment was conducted using Claident and results are in QCidentified* files.

Metadata, OTU table, and taxonomy table were integrated into phyloseq (McMurdie & Holmes., 2013, PLOS ONE.) object by scripts in afterClaident*.Rmd files.

Data from different barcode regions were merged using mergeMarkers.Rmd file and a python3 script by da Silva et al. (2019). Subsequent statistical analysis was conducted using other...