Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor)

[Styx38]

Pckts Wrote:First it was "leopards dont kill sambar" then it was "leopards dont kill Sambar in the gir" now its "all sambar killed in gir are juveniles" 

Quote:I've already posted predation on adult Sambar, the study was conducted by scat and kill site and Sambar is the 2nd most frequent prey item. You claiming them all to be sub adult is unfounded. The study only says that kill sites didnt have an adult Sambar but the scat samples contained Sambar as the 2nd highest valuation and considering out of the 50+ sites only 16 were fresh, even that is hardly conclusive.

You didn't read my sources. They point out that the predation on Sambar (in Tiger/Lion habitats) is either low or mainly on juveniles. 

I don't deny the Leopard's capability. The experts stated their doubts.

Pckts Wrote:Your claim about my favorite sub species is ridiculous, it's a childish notion. When someone disagrees with you it's not always because they are bias, considering I've shown numerous measurements, given exames and posted data I'd say it's coming from a place of science and not blind loyalty. I'd also say I've earned the benefit of the doubt and I'm sure most here would agree. 

Quote:You think all Leopards take their kills up a tree?
Leopards eat off the ground all the time, the plains dont just have trees like the forest of India, they are spread out and can be quite far from each other. Leopards make kills that sometimes arent near a tree or too big to haul so they drag it to a hidden spot and they consume it. Sometimes they are ran off, sometimes they hold their ground, sometimes they eat in piece, etc. But the fact remains, the only reason they compete against all these other predators is because the prey biomass is so high.

So you should accept that Persian Leopards produce the biggest individuals, rather than repetitively telling us a lesser amount of Plains Leopards can reach the size.

The tree thing is correlated with competitors, with the most caches occurring in Spotted Hyena Habitat. 

Also, speaking of biodiversity, a predator can still thrive on adequate food source.

For example, the Leopards in Sri Lanka, Central Africa and Iran still have decent food sources. The only difference is that they have no major competitor to usurp their kills, so they can easily make more big kills compared to their Savanna counterparts.

For example, the leopards in the Congo have been known to kill adult Okapi, at least more frequently than Savanna Leopards have been known to take on adult zebra.
There are some occasional instances of plains leopards killing something as big animals like adult zebra, but that is quite rare, while there were many more observations and records of Rainforest Leopards taking down similar sized Okapi despite being lesser studied, documented and photographed.
Same thing with Persian leopards and adult Maral deer and Sri Lankan Leopard with Sambar deer (or an Indian Leopard and Sambar deer in Tiger-less habitat).

The point is the frequency of larger kills may correlate with higher frequency of larger males, as can be seen with Persian Leopards. Reply