Metabarcoding of vertebrate and plant in scat of alpine mammals in Kyrgyzstan
Snow leopards are obligate carnivores but they eat plants both in the wild and in captivity. The goal of this project was to identify the vertebrate and plant repertoire in scat samples from snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan as well as sympatric mammals. Target species were snow leopard, gray wolf, red fox, brown bear, marmot, argali and ibex. This project provides essential basis to understand plant-eating behavior of obligate carnivores.