Research overview: dhole-tiger-leopard guild dynamics in Asian forests

A survey of the three-way interactions among tigers, leopards and dholes, the dominant predators of South and Southeast Asian forests. These species partition a shared ungulate community by prey size and hunting mode, tigers taking the largest prey solitarily, leopards smaller prey with arboreal caching, and dholes medium prey through diurnal pack hunting, yet they also compete and occasionally kill one another. This overview synthesizes evidence on diet overlap, spatial and temporal avoidance, and how prey abundance governs coexistence within the guild. It draws on landmark Indian studies and considers how prey depletion and habitat loss disrupt the balance. Understanding this guild is central to managing reserves where all three predators occur and to predicting the effects of recovering or losing any one species.