Coexistence of three sympatric ungulates through seasonal partitioning of diet and habitat in a tropical deciduous forest of central India

Understanding how ecologically distinct herbivores coexist in heterogeneous landscapes is critical to forest ecology and wildlife management. Using direct foraging observations, we quantified diet composition, niche breadth, and dietary overlap of three large herbivores: Chital ( Axis axis ), Sambar ( Rusa unicolor ), and Gaur ( Bos gaurus ) in the tropical deciduous forests of Kanha National Park, India, across the dry (summer) and resource-abundant (winter) seasons. Chital, a generalist grazer, showed the broadest niche and expanded its diet to include browse in summer before returning to a grazing role in winter. Sambar exhibited narrow, browse-dominated diets and strong preference for bamboo forests. Gaur, an intermediate feeder, demonstrated seasonal flexibility, shifting toward browse in winter with changing resource availability. Dietary overlap was moderate to high across species pairs, but spatial partitioning and distinct foraging strategies likely minimized competition. Our findings highlight those functional traits alone cannot explain coexistence; behavioral flexibility and seasonal habitat use are equally important. This study adds to the limited field-based research on ungulate niche dynamics in tropical Asia and provides clear directions for protection and maintenance of diverse habitat mosaics critical for sustaining sympatric ungulate communities in the protected-area landscapes.