2.3. a) Field and Analytical method: Variation in prey composition and density across study sites
Line transect based distance sampling (Buckland et al., 2001) was used to estimate prey densities at the two sites. Line transects were laid in a stratified random framework to ensure spatial coverage of all vegetation types. All transects were of 2 km length. Survey effort of 950 km and 984 km was put in TATR and NNTR, respectively. Data for species, group size and composition, GPS (global positioning system) location of every observation, bearing of the animal using compass and angular sighting distance using laser range finders, was recorded whenever sightings were made online transects.