ORIGINAL ARTICLE Sympatric snow leopards and Tibetan wolves: coexistence of large carnivores with human-driven potential competition Anna Bocci 1,2 & Sandro Lovari 1,2,3 & Muhammad Zafar Khan 4 & Emiliano Mori 1 Received: 17 July 2017 /Revised: 26 October 2017 /Accepted: 6 November 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract The snow leopard Panthera uncia coexists with the wolf Canis lupus throughout most of its distribution range. We analysed the food habits of snow leopards and wolves in their sympatric range in the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan. A total of 131 genotyped scats (N = 74, snow leop- ard; N = 57, Tibetan wolf) were collected during the cold pe- riods (i.e. winter and spring) of 2011 and 2012 in the Hushey valley. Large mammals, i.e. livestock and ibex, accounted for 84.8 and 83.1% of the diet (relative frequency) of the snow leopard and the wolf, respectively. Domestic prey was the staple of the diet of both snow leopards (66.6%) and wolves (75.1%). Ibex Capra ibex, the only wild ungulate in our study area, contributed 18.2 and 16.9% of relative frequencies in the diets of the snow leopard and the wolf, respectively. In winter, the snow leopard heavily relied on domestic sheep (43.3%) for food, whereas the wolf preyed mainly on domestic goats (43.4%). Differently from other study areas, both snow leop- ards and wolves showed no apparent prey preference (Jacobs index: snow leopard min. − 0.098, max. 0.102; Tibetan wolf min. − 0.120, max. 0.03). In human depauperate areas, with livestock and only a few wild prey, should competitive inter- actions arise, two main scenarios could be expected, with either predator as a winner. In both cases, the best solution could primarily impinge on habitat restoration, so that a bal- ance could be found between these predators, who have al- ready coexisted for thousands of years. Keywords Panthera uncia . Canis lupus filchneri . Competition . Large-carnivore coexistence . Siberian ibex Introduction Large carnivore species can occur in simpatry throughout the world because of prey partitioning, body size differences, dif- ferent activity rhythms or habitat use (Palomares et al. 1996; Lovari et al. 2015; Sugimoto et al. 2016), which limit inter- specific competition (Palomares and Caro 1999; Donadio and Buskirk 2006). When they compete, it is apparently through interference, where usually the smaller species experiences negative effects on its population dynamics (for reviews on competition among carnivores: Palomares and Caro 1999; Donadio and Buskirk 2006). Although there is a wealth of studies showing interference competition among carnivores, exploitative competition has not been documented so far in this order (but see Watts and Holekamp 2008). Information is limited on the role of the snow leopard Panthera uncia within its ecosystem, as well as its ecological relationships with the carnivore guild of wolf Canis lupus, brown bear Ursus arctos lynx Lynx lynx and common leopard Panthera pardus (Schaller 2016). These large carnivores may use the same prey * Sandro Lovari sandro.lovari@gmail.com Anna Bocci annabocci@gmail.com Muhammad Zafar Khan zafar.khan@kiu.edu.pk Emiliano Mori moriemiliano@tiscali.it 1 Dept. of Life Sciences-Research Unit of Behavioural Ecology, Ethology and Wildlife Management, University of Siena, via P.A. Mattioli 4,, 53100 Siena, Italy 2 Ev-K2-CNR, Bergamo, Italy 3 Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma, Strada Corsini 5, 58100 Grosseto, Italy 4 Department of Environmental Sciences, Karakoram International University, Gilgit 15100, Pakistan Eur J Wildl Res https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-017-1151-0