1. Seasonal Diet and Foraging Preference of Greater Kudu Tragelaphus Strepsiceros in the Llano Uplift of Texas
Shawn S. Gray, Thomas R. Simpson, John T. Baccus, Richard W. Manning, and T. Wayne Schwertner

2. Introduction
Greater kudu is a large African herbivore and occupies the browser trophic niche.
Introduced into areas of Texas inhabited by White-tailed deer
Potential for interspecific competition
Basic dietary information is lacking for Texas and North America for the greater kudu

3. Objectives Describe the seasonal diets of greater kudu in Texas
Determine if greater kudu show preference for plants that might create competition with white-tailed deer. We documented the seasonal diet and forage preference of greater kudu at Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area from 15 May 2001 to 25 February 2002 by identifying epidermal fragments of plants in fecal pellets.

4. Study Area Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area (MMWMA)
The Llano Uplift – located in the Edwards Plateau Ecological Region of Texas
Area – 2,120 hectares
Elevation meters
Soil – sandy loam most frequent
Precipitation – 76 cm
Temperature – 9.3 degree-29.5 degrees Celsius

5. Study Area
Dominant Fauna – White-tailed deer, axis deer, blackbuck antelope, sable antelope, scimitar-horned oryx, and impala
Dominant Flora -
Browse: oaks, mesquite, persimmon, agarita, prickly pear, Ashe juniper, Devil’s shoestring, twisted-leaf yucca
Grassland: curly mesquite, little bluestem, purple threeawn, hairy grama, sideoats, grama, and Texas wintergrass
Forbs: prairie coneflower, wild carrot, broomweed, one-seed croton, plantain, hairy wedelia, filaree, sida, and western ragweed
Species eveness and richness
Eveness = number of different species
Richness = number of individuals in each species
Human impact by introducing Kudu could be detrimental if it becomes an exotic
Direct competition between species

6. Methods Fecal collection
Advantages: Non-interference with habitat and movement of animals
Disadvantage: Differential digestion of consumed plants
Fecal analysis
Assessment for annual and seasonal diet
Vegetation sampling

7. Fecal Collection
196 freshly deposited pellet groups (20 pellets per sample)
Spring (15 May – 6 June)
Summer (25 July – 19 August)
Autumn (13 October – 10 November)
Winter (19 January – 25 February)

8. Fecal Analysis Air-dried in paper sacks with paradichlorobenzene
grams of each sample were ground
0.425 mm screen
Soaked in 5% NaClO for minutes
Rinsed with water
Two slides were prepared and preserved
with Mount-Quick aqueous mounting medium
Slides air-dried for two hours before being sealed
Fragment size
Pigment removal

9. Vegetation Sampling
16 points selected for sampling transects of 100 meters
Daubenmire 1959 method
160 frames for all seasons
Line-intercept method
1500 meters in spring and winter
2 meter pole used to identify woody plants available to greater kudu
Fragment size
Pigment removal

10. Plant Use Principle food items ≥ 3% for all seasons Categories Browse
Mast
Forbs
Grasses
Other (< 3%)
Fragment size
Pigment removal

11. Foraging Preference
Log likelihood X2 test with estimated proportions of available resources.
Used to determine if kudu consumed plant species in proportion to their estimated availability
Herbaceous cover: present cover of Daubenmire frames with ≥ 5% cover
Woody species availability: the percentage of 10-m intercept intervals in which the plant contributed $ 5% of the intercept length.
95% confidence intervals with a Bonderroni correction
Manly’s alpha preference index used to determine preference and avoidance of plants.
Fragment size
Pigment removal

12. Fragment size
Pigment removal

13. Fragment size
Pigment removal

14. Fragment size
Pigment removal

15. Conclusions
Greater kudu was primarily a browser in all seasons (67-90%)
Mast was the second most preferred (4-23%)
Forbs were less important in Texas than in Southern Africa (0-12.4%)
Grasses were seasonally ingested and made up (4-14%)
Seasonal preference explained by plant availability
Competition between white-tailed deer and greater kudu is high
Fragment size
Pigment removal