Winter Dietary Composition of Black Francolin (Francolinus francolinus) in Totali Public Game Reserve, Pakistan

Abstract

The winter diet of Black Francolin (Francolinus francolinus) is poorly documented in Totali Public Game Reserve, Pakistan. We examined crop contents from 24 legally harvested birds (14 males and 10 females) collected during 2022–2024. Thirty-three identifiable food taxa were recorded, comprising 22 plant and 11 animal taxa, together with unidentified plant and animal material. Dietary composition was quantified using frequency of occurrence, numerical abundance, mass percentage, and importance value (IV%). Plant material dominated numerically, with Poaceae (IV = 57.1%) and Fabaceae (IV = 25.7%) contributing most strongly among plant families, whereas Formicidae dominated the animal component (IV = 70.8%). Dietary indices were Shannon–Wiener H’ = 2.34, Simpson’s 1-D = 0.84, Pielou’s J’ = 0.67, and standardized Levins’ niche breadth B_sta = 0.16, indicating an uneven winter diet concentrated in a limited subset of resources despite the number of taxa recorded. Body mass, crop mass, and dry food mass did not differ significantly between sexes. Body mass was positively correlated with crop mass (r = 0.61, p = 0.001) and dry food mass (r = 0.59, p = 0.002). These findings provide a site-specific description of the winter diet and a baseline for future seasonal, multi-site, and resource-availability studies.