Leopard Predation Thread

[Styx38]

(07-15-2022, 03:14 AM)Luipaard Wrote: The debate wasn't about the accessibility of trees to stash a kill. It was about which subspecies lives a more arboreal lifestyle. This can't be figured out despite Africa having more acess to trees which are perfect to stash a kill. India has accessible trees as well and indeed less prominent but that doesn't mean Indian leopards live a less arboreal lifestyle. Again they spend a big part of their time in trees. They've been known to mate and fight in trees. In India they consider it rare to spot a leopard on the ground (crossing a road, drinking, ...) because they're usually found in trees. This is why territorial males patrolling are often called bold. In Jhalana Safari Park it's much more common to spot a leopard and that's not because the area lacks trees (you've posted a leopard from Jhalana in a tree as well) but because they're on top of the food chain.

Want to point out that Sri Lankan Leopards are the next arboreal subspecies after the Indian Leopard.

They can cache kills at a comparable rate to Indian Leopards, at least in Yala National Park.

"Tree caching of kills was uncommon (13.7%, N = 51)."

"Of all kills, 13.7% were secured in trees"

Kittle, Andrew M., Anjali C. Watson, and T. Saminda P. Fernando. "The ecology and behaviour of a protected area Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) population." Tropical Ecology 58.1 (2017): 71-86.


The only other way would be to see how often they eat primates, though that also depends on the abundance of monkeys in the area.


A Leopard catches a young Langur in a small tree in Yala.

Here is an unsuccessful attempt to catch monkeys in trees. Also most likely in Yala.

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