Leopard Predation Thread

[Lionsandme10]

Indochinese leopards prey on banteng

Eastern Cambodia’s leopards are also part of the only leopard population in the world to prey predominantly on an animal weighing more than 500 kilograms — the banteng.
By contrast, male Indochinese leopards in the eastern Cambodian study site appear to prey predominantly on an animal more than five times its mass, making this the only known leopard population in the world to do so.

The leopards there could be targeting banteng because the large herbivore represents about 70 percent of the available ungulate biomass within the study site, Rostro-García said. Moreover, tigers, whose main prey was the banteng, went locally extinct in the landscape a decade ago, allowing leopards to take over as the apex predator.
“Tigers kill and displace leopards, and previous research showed that when tigers are present, leopards consume smaller prey to avoid encounters with tigers,” Rostro-García said. “Thus, the leopards in eastern Cambodia likely changed their predatory behavior to include the banteng, the largest herbivore, which may have been previously off limits to them when tigers were present.”

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Indochinese leopard’s main prey in the study area was banteng, a rare species of wild cattle. Camera trap image

https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/cambodias-banteng-eating-leopards-edge-closer-to-extinction-new-study-finds/ Reply