Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)

[Shir Babr]

(07-27-2018, 11:23 PM)Wolverine Wrote:

Does anybody has an idea why Amur leopard is smaller than Persian leopard? They both live in the North in cold habitats and according to Bergman's rule should be big both. Persian is the largest subspecie of all but Amur is not big at all. I guess the winter in Far East is much harsher than winter in Caucasus and prey density is smaller. Answering of this question could give answer why Amur tiger is not larger than Bengal tiger despite some theoretical reasons for that.

Although the largest leopard skull comes from Iran, I've read that the largest recorded individuals (90 kg / 198 lbs) actually come from the Bushveld. Male African rainforest leopards seem pretty big, being the largest carnivore in that ecosystem could mean also very large individuals in a tropical environment. My opinion is that it probably has to do in part with prey size and density, and part from the competition. Amur leopards prey more on smaller animals than tigers do probably to avoid further competition over a limited food source, thus a larger size could mean a disadvantage. Also snow leopards are similar in size to Amur leopards, so no need to be bigger to protect against the cold. In the case of Siberian and Bengal tigers from the North, a zoologist told me that it probably had to do with the fact that in Northern India tigers live with more species of big herbivores than Amur tigers, but also the genetic bottleneck in Far East caused by humans, as @peter has pointed out how modern weights are lower than in the last century among that population. Reply