detecting domestic dog in diet of leopard using dna tools

the leopard (panthera pardus) as an adaptable felid widely distributed in varied ecosystems of iran. the golestan natural park is one of the main habitats of leopard in the country. it has divers diet and preying various types of preys such as wild ungulate and livestock. the prey remains’ samples of leopard were collected and preserved using ethanol 96% and whole genomic dna was extracted. the control region of mtdna was pcr-amplified using primers l15995 and h16498. in this study, we identified domestic dog (canis lupus familiaris) in diet of leopard in golestan national park by means of sequencing the control region of mtdna. it is the first record that reveals domestic dog in the diet of leopard in iran, although many different preys have been detected in other studies except dog. existence of dog in leopard’s diet is remarkable while many favourite preys of leopard exist in the same habitat.