DOI: 10.5061/dryad.n218r2n
title: Data from: Ecological opportunity drives individual dietary specialisation in leopards

description: 1. Individual specialisation, when individuals exploit only a subset of
 resources utilised by the population, is a widespread phenomenon. It
 provides the basis for evolutionary diversification and can impact
 population and community dynamics. Both phenotypic traits and
 environmental conditions are predicted to influence individual
 specialisation; however, its adaptive consequences are poorly understood,
 particularly among large mammalian carnivores that play an important role
 in shaping ecosystems. 2. We used observations of 2960 kills made by 49
 leopards Panthera pardus in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa, to
 quantify the magnitude of individual dietary specialisation in a solitary
 large carnivore, and to examine the proximate and ultimate drivers of this
 behaviour. 3. We found evidence of individual specialisation in leopard
 diet, with respect to both the species and size of prey killed. Males
 tended to be more specialised than females, likely because they could
 access a wider range of prey due to larger body size. Similarly,
 individuals that encountered a greater diversity of prey tended to be more
 specialised. Our results confirmed that ecological opportunity was a key
 determinant of individual specialisation; however, contrary to
 predictions, per capita resource availability (and by extension,
 intraspecific competition) did not affect the degree of specialisation
 exhibited by individuals. 4. Surprisingly, dietary specialisation appeared
 to disadvantage male leopards. Specialist males overlapped with fewer
 resident females, had fewer cubs born on their home ranges, and had fewer
 cubs survive to independence on their home ranges than generalist males.
 This may have resulted from the high degree of environmental stochasticity
 experienced during our study, as dietary specialisation is expected to
 advantage individuals more during periods of resource predictability. 5.
 In summary, we showed that a species usually considered to be a dietary
 generalist was in fact a heterogenous collection of specialist and
 generalist individuals. Individual specialisation is typically assumed to
 be maintained by disruptive and/or fluctuating selection; hence, the
 somewhat paradoxical coexistence of both in the same population might be
 explained by a dynamic evolutionary equilibrium that exists between
 specialists and generalists, in which each benefit under different
 conditions. 08-Aug-2019
description: Indiv_KillsContribution of six main prey species to the diet of individual leopards. These data were used to calculate the respective specialisation scores.GLMM_Sex_Age_PSIData used in generalized linear mixed models assessing the influence of phenotypic constraints on individual dietary specialisation (PSi) in leopards.GLMM_Male_Environ_PSiData used in generalized linear mixed models assessing the influence of environmental conditions on individual dietary specialisation (PSi) in male leopards.GLMM_Female_Environ_PSiData used in generalized linear mixed models assessing the influence of environmental conditions on individual dietary specialisation (PSi) in female leopards.GLMM_Male_Repro_SuccData used in generalized linear mixed models assessing the influence of individual dietary specialisation (PSi) on the annual reproductive success of male leopards.GLMM_Female_Repro_SuccData used in generalized linear mixed models assessing the influence of individual dietary specialisation (PSi) on the annual reproductive success of female leopards.