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Leopard Predation Thread
Leopard Predation Thread
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Leopard Predation Thread
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Red hartebeest being tackled by a leopard
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/772117321098723329/884207960484638730/image0.jpg 
Feral Dog that was killed by the Leopard.
 *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.conservationindia.org/galler...-feral-dog
Leopard finds a Flying Squirrel in a tree.
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author source: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1015...1059521432
Here is a Leopard that was briefly interrupted from killing a Kudu Cow, but later came back to finish the job. Of course, the Leopard also left the kill unattended at the time.
 *This image is copyright of its original author ^ You can actually briefly see in the beginning that the Leopard was holding onto the Kudu Cow, but was interrupted by the Car headlights, then darted into the bush. Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdXbN6Qygl8 (11-20-2021, 01:36 AM)Styx38 Wrote: Feral Dog that was killed by the Leopard. Here is another photo, only the Leopard was close to the Dog kill.  *This image is copyright of its original author source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=101....525891431
Some photos of a young Leopard hoisting a comparable sized Sambar fawn up a tree.
I am not sure if the photos are 100% in correct sequence, but I tried based on position and location of the Leopard and the carcass. Also, I apologize for the stock photo watermark.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author source: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-l...ge56867966 Credits: Girishhc 
A male leopard with an adult wildebeest kill
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author pehrenholm
Here are the causes of mortality of Wild Boar in Amur territory.
The predators include Tigers, Leopards, Brown Bears, Wolves and Lynx. As can be seen, Brown Bears killed 184 Boars, Tigers killed 41 Boars and Leopards killed 5 Boars.  *This image is copyright of its original author Here are the sex and age classes of Boars killed by predators. As can be seen, Brown Bears killed 31 adult male Boars, Tigers killed 9 adult male Boars and Leopards killed 1 adult male Boar. On the other hand, both the Lynx and Wolves never killed any adult male Boar.  *This image is copyright of its original author Unfortunately, this was posted in a different forum without any proper source.
Leopard predation on Dhole.
Dhole killed by Leopard.  *This image is copyright of its original author In one study, Dhole hair made up 2% of Leopard scat in comparison to 0.6% of Tiger scat.  *This image is copyright of its original author source: Venkataraman, Arun B. “Do Dholes (Cuon Alpinus) Live in Packs in Response to Competition with or Predation by Large Cats?” Current Science, vol. 69, no. 11, Temporary Publisher, 1995, pp. 934–36, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24097214. The study was from here.  *This image is copyright of its original author source: Karanth, K. Ullas, and Melvin E. Sunquist. "Prey selection by tiger, leopard and dhole in tropical forests." Journal of Animal Ecology (1995): 439-450.
Here is some actual footage of a Leopard taking down an adult Wildebeest.
 *This image is copyright of its original author from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS2dPvOI6ig but originally posted in SerenityMaraSafaris instagram.
Failed predation attempt on an ostrich
https://www.instagram.com/jamotyrrell/p/BIDRy06BFF-/?utm_medium=copy_link
Young leopard predation attempt on a herd of wild boar
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXE8F7_PuJF/?utm_medium=copy_link
Here is a major study that focused on Leopard predation of Gorillas.
The research was posted by Gato Gordo on Carnivora in 2012. However, that forum is currently archived.  *This image is copyright of its original author In the study, there was an attack on an adult Gorilla, as well as a Gorilla toe being found in Leopard scat.  *This image is copyright of its original author Here are the study areas, which are in the Central African Republic (CAR). The dates of study include the time when the Leopard scat was found.  *This image is copyright of its original author Here is the Gorilla toe that was found in the Leopard dung. You can see that this picture has been posted multiple times on other forums as well as reddt.  *This image is copyright of its original author Here is an account of an attack on a Gorilla by a Leopard at daytime. While the Gorillas did fend off the Leopard with a stick, the Gorillas ran from the Leopard and omitted a 'fear odor'.  *This image is copyright of its original author They noted that Leopards consumed the toes of other primates in previous studies.  *This image is copyright of its original author There was possible predation, but also they were theorizing scavenging.  *This image is copyright of its original author They actually theorized that Leopards go for large animals in forests due to absence of mega-carnivores. They note kills such as a predation attempt young female buffalo in Bai Hokou, an actual young female Buffalo kill, an immature Bongo kill, and an adult Okapi kill in Ituri Forest, DRC. This is interesting because the theory was proven to be correct in later studies.  *This image is copyright of its original author They concluded with man-eating Leopards, including the famous Leopard of Rudraprayag, which claimed the lives of 125 people.  *This image is copyright of its original author source: Fay, J. M. R. "Leopard attack on and consumption of gorillas in the Central African Republic." J Hum Evol 29 (1955): 93-99.
For the Leopard fans, @
One thing to note is that although there are no Lions/Leopards/Spotted Hyenas in these regions, there are still competitors like Wolves, Brown Bears and Brown Hyenas in these areas. a) Sambar Deer: In Sariska, Sambar Deer made up 45.5% of Leopard diet based on scat. From kills (n=29), they may have made about 55% of the diet, with Sambar Deer Stags making up 15%-16% of kills and Sambar Doe making up 30%-32% of kills. Overall, adult Sambar made up around 45% to 49% of the kills in this study.  *This image is copyright of its original author "The contribution of rodent in leopard’s diet was 44.2% in 1990, when the study area was largely occupied by tigers (Sankar & Johnsingh 2002), but after the local extermination of tiger from the study area (2007-08), Mondal et al. (2011) found no contribution of rodent in leopard’s diet. Later, after the re-introduction of tiger in the study area (in 2009), the contribution of rodent in leopard’s diet raised to 5.4% (Table III). In 1990, chital contributed maximum in tiger diet (57.2%) followed by sambar (18.1%) and in leopard diet, rodent contributed maximum (44.2%) followed by chital (20.2%), sambar (19.4%) and nilgai (7%). But after the local extermination of tiger from the study area, the diet of leopard changed significantly. The contribution of sambar and nilgai in leopard’s diet increased to 40.3% and 11.5% respectively in 2007-08, when there was no tiger in the study area (Mondal et al. 2011) (Table III). It was evident that, leopard shifted their diet from lesser prey species. to large ungulates after tiger extermination from Sariska (Sankar et al. 2009; Mondal et al. 2011)" source: Mondal, K., et al. "Prey selection, food habits and dietary overlap between leopard Panthera pardus (Mammalia: Carnivora) and re-introduced tiger Panthera tigris (Mammalia: Carnivora) in a semi-arid forest of Sariska Tiger Reserve, Western India." Italian Journal of Zoology 79.4 (2012): 607-616. Sambar Deer tend to make up a high portion of Leopard diet in Horton Plains National Park (Sri Lanka) and adjacent areas due to their abundance in these regions. 'In Agrapatana, Sambar was most frequently represented in scat samples (59.1%), consistent with probable prey availability, given that the study area is contiguous with Horton Plains National Park (HPNP) where sambar density is estimated to be 66.5/km² (Rajapakse 2003). ' 'Previous scat analysis from HPNP found sambar in 75.8% of samples (N=22) (Ranawana et al. 1998). That fewer samples contained Sambar here than in HPNP, and more contained Black-naped Hare and Purple-faced Langurs (Table 3; 13.6% compared to 6.8% and 3.4% in HPNP, Ranawana et al. 1998) hints at variation in prey availability between the core of a protected area such as HPNP and an adjoining yet peripheral area such as Agrapatana.' source: Kittle, Andrew M., et al. "Notes on the diet and habitat selection of the Sri Lankan Leopard Panthera pardus kotiya (Mammalia: Felidae) in the central highlands of Sri Lanka." Journal of Threatened Taxa 6.9 (2014): 6214-6221. "Sambar are abundant in HPNP, congregating in large herds in the open grasslands." "Sambar appear to compose the largest proportion of leopard diet here with >75% of scat containing sambar remains (n > 30; Ranawana et al. 1998, Rajapakse 2003)." source: Kittle, A. M., & Watson, A. C. (2018). "Density of leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya) in Horton Plains National Park in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka." Mammalia, 82(2), 183-187. b) Kudu: Leopards have a high preference for Kudu in areas without any significant competitor, except for Brown Hyenas and Cheetah. "In the absence of larger predators leopards may prey on slightly larger prey such as greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) in Africa (Stein 2008, Karanth and Sunquist 1995)."  *This image is copyright of its original author Adult Kudu here made up a good portion of kills. The percentage would be about 17%. It was also a female Leopard with cubs, so small animals like Duiker were also killed. source: Stein, A. B. (2008). Ecology and conservation of the leopard (Panthera pardus Linnaeus 1758) in northcentral Namibia. University of Massachusetts Amherst. c) Red Deer/Elk: So here is the recent Caucasus Mountains Leopard kill rate. Two sub-adult leopards showed a high preference overall for Caspian Red Deer.  *This image is copyright of its original author We will be focusing on the Caucasus nature Reserve due to the Caspian Red Deer there. As can be seen. there are many unchecked clusters, so the researchers were not able to identify the animals killed. However, they did verify that there were 29 clusters with successful hunts, as in N=29 kills, particularly for the Leopard known as Victoria. The same Leopard killed an Wild Boar Sow and an adult Wolf within a short time of her release.  *This image is copyright of its original author So even if 10 of the kills are unidentified, 9 of the kills in the next 12 months were Red Deer, which is approx. 31% kill rate. For the 6 months, it was 8 verified kills out of 19, or 42% kill rate. For the Leopard Killy, it was a 21% kill rate of Red Deer in 6 months, and a 16% kill rate of Red Deer in 12 months. As noted, Killy had more unchecked clusters than Victoria, so there probably more unidentified Deer kill there. source: Rozhnov, V. V., et al. "Study and Monitoring of Big Cats in Russia." (2019). In an older study, Leopards were also reported to hunt Kashmir Red Stags, which are now considered an Elk subspecies.  *This image is copyright of its original author source: Ward, A. E. (1921). Game animals of Kashmir and adjacent hill provinces. J.of Bombay Natural Historical Society., 29, 23–35. Kashmir Red deer, also known as Hangul, still make up a good portion of Leopard diet despite being overhunted. 'The very low sex ratio and fawn-to-female ratio could be attributed to significant predation by Leopard on all sex and age classes of Hangul and of Black Bear principally on young deer. Our studies on predator-prey relationships at Dachigam NP have revealed that the Leopard Panthera pardus and the Asiatic Black Bear Ursus thibetanus are the major predators in the area and that the Hangul formed a major proportion (about 25%) of the Leopard diet at Dachigam NP (Iqbal et al. 2004; Ahmad 2006). In other words, 60% of the biomass of the Leopard diet is constituted by Hangul' source: Ahmad, Khursheed, S. Sathyakumar, and Qamar Qureshi. "Conservation status of the last surviving wild population of hangul or Kashmir deer Cervus elaphus hanglu in Kashmir, India." Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 106.3 (2009): 245. d) Free-ranging Cattle: Leopards showed a strong preference for Cattle in China. "Figure 2 shows the number of livestock preyed on by the north China leopard within the 4 year study period (2015–2018) in and around the Tieqiaoshan Provincial Nature Reserve. A total of 173 livestock were killed, out of which 125 (72%) were adult cattle, 40 (23%) were calves, and 8 (5%) were sheep. This study shows that the number of livestock species killed by north China leopards in and around the Tieqiaoshan Provincial Nature Reserve differed significantly. Among the livestock, north China leopards killed more cattle. This is contrary to the findings of [3,25], who mentioned in their studies that leopard killed more goats, followed by sheep. This could probably be due to the reasons that goats are not domesticated in and around of this reserve, and most of the sheep kept are not free-range. Therefore, the free-range system of the farming of cattle practiced in and around the reserve makes it ideal for the north China leopard to prey them. In the free-range system, the cattle roam freely outdoors rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 h each day"  *This image is copyright of its original author source: Consolee et. al. 2020. Human-Leopard Conflict: An Emerging Issue of North China Leopard Conservation in Tieqiaoshan Provincial Nature Reserve in Shanxi Province, China Leopards have a preference for both adult male Cattle as well as juveniles in Iran.  *This image is copyright of its original author FIGURE 4 Cattle selectivity for natural coloration as a whole, separate natural colors, males and juveniles by leopards in the study area, sites, villages, and owners. Error bars indicate the standard error "(a) Male cattle are preferred by leopards because males have a larger body mass, and leopards in Iran are among the biggest; (b) juvenile cattle (calves and heifers) are preferred by leopards because they are easy to catch and thus are highly vulnerable to depredation; and © differently colored cattle are neither preferred nor avoided by leopards and taken according to the cattle availability. " Khorozyan et. al. (2018) Cattle selectivity by leopards suggests ways to mitigate human–leopard conflict These are the studies I have found so far on Leopards going for large prey. I am informing you guys since Leopard fans/enthusiasts never pay attention to Leopard diets as much as they do Leopard measurements. |
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