<scp>DNA</scp> metabarcoding illuminates the contribution of small and very small prey taxa to the diet of lions

Knowledge of food web interactions is essential for understanding the role carnivores in an ecosystem and designing appropriate conservation management strategies to preserve them. These can only be understood by studying carnivores' diets obtaining comprehensive unbiased diet data. For large carnivores—which typically rely on herbivores as prey—the smaller prey species has not received attention. This study aims quantify contribution small (5–50 kg) very (<5 taxa lions (Panthera leo melanochaita) four Kenyan National Parks (NPs). We use DNA metabarcoding achieve higher-resolution insights into composition, which less biased toward compared traditional methods, such carcass counts. Our identified 24 a total 171 lion fecal samples. Small together contributed 18.7% out 278 occurrences all samples, with comparable presence (ranging from 8% 15%) each NP studied. approach proved useful detecting therefore used future research uncover diverse composition these carnivores. The consistent indicates that generally supplement their prey.