Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor)

[Pckts]

Quote:Anyway, you made a contradiction here:

Pckts Wrote: Wrote:Who points out?
If you're only speaking on one study where it says that Kill Sites only showed Juveniles (Only 16 of 50 were fresh) while Scat Samples showed the 2nd most abundant prey item as being Sambar and of course there is no way to know what Age or Sex is in the scat sample.

and 

Pckts Wrote: Wrote:Sambar were found to be the 2nd most preyed item in the GIR per scat *Lion Dominated*[/quore]

Where exactly did I contradict my self?
You used Kill sites to claim only Juveniles where taken and of those kill sites, only 16 were even considered fresh, the rest were old and rotting carcasses. 
My point was, Scat samples have no way of telling the age or sex of the prey taken, but considering that Sambar were the 2nd most common prey species in scat, it's safe to assume that some were adults as we have already seen Leopards take adult Sambar from varies parks dominated by both, Lions and Tigers.

 

Quote:"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)."

First off, Okapi are smaller than Zebra and 2ndly, the amount of Kills contributed by either are statistically insignificant but the taking of their Fawn aren't and with a much higher biomass, adult Zebra, sub adult and fawn all fall victims to Leopards in the C/E Africa far more often than Okapi do to Congo Basin Leopards.

Quote:"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)

A study comparing prey selection based off of Scat Samples from 1990 to another one in 2008 leave a lot of questions. What methods are they comparing, which areas, age and sex, what was the biomass, etc. 
Again, I'm also speaking on African Leopards, the contribution of Sambar to Indian Leopards diet is only being discussed because you said initially they don't hunt Sambar.
I agree that if an Apex Predator suddenly goes missing the prey it hunts will see an increase in numbers and the smaller carnivore should see a benefit in this. Whether it'd be from adults or the increase in young, either way it should benefit other predators that no longer have to worry about larger competitors. Does this somehow become more important than having the largest supply of Ungulates on earth?

Quote:Speaking of biomass, what is the difference between a Leopard killing a few 15-60 kg animals in one area vs. several more 15-60 kg animals in another area?

Wouldn't the leopard actually have more time to replenish its lost energy, and gain a better amount of meat in an area without other serious carnivores (as in a higher chance of losing a 15-60 kg animal to a lion/tiger/hyena).

They Savanna Leopard and the Central African/Persian/Sri Lankan Leopard can get enough of their mid-sized meals as long as they live in a healthy ecosystem:

There is no difference, except that the available prey with in the prime weight is much higher in one area compared to another and thus offers far more options.


Without larger carnivores it should benefit a Leopard, will it benefit a Leopard more than having the highest prey biomass on earth, I don't think so. 
This is and has always been my point. And when the prey biomass is that high both cats coexist and thrive

"given the relationships between predator density

and prey biomass, when the preferred prey of
these species increases in abundance so will the
predators (van Orsdol et al.1985;Fuller et al.1992;
Hayward et al. 2007d)."


"Although intense competitors, there is no evidence
that lions and hyaenas limit each other’s population
abundance and so there is no predicted response.
Leopards prefer and take prey smaller than that of
other guild members and this, coupled with their
use of denser habitats and adaptability, suggests
they will be largely unaffected by variation in
competitor levels"
http://www.the-eis.com/data/literature/Prey%20preferences%20and%20dietary%20overlap%20amongst%20Africas%20large%20predators.pdf


"In Chitawan National Park where tigers and leopards co-exist, tigers were recorded utilizing a much

wider range of prey sizes than leopards (Seidensticker
1976). The wild ungulate density in the intensive
study area (102 individuals/km2) is one of the highest
reported density in Indian sub-continent (Mondal
2011) and adequate to support both leopard and reintroduced tiger population in the study area (Sankar
et al. 2009). Though leopards and tigers utilized
the same prey species in the study area, but there
is a difference between the sex and size classes of
prey species, as observed by kill records. "

But again, Indian Leopards have far less to chose from, they live in a jungle habitat which means watering holes are spread out and prey doesn't congregate in the 1000s likes it does in Africa, so in turn they probably do suffer more from an Apex predator compared to their African Cousins. 

Quote:Not the best argument since Persian Leopards will still have larger individuals in proportion per population. For example, the average Swedish man is taller than the average Chinese man, but due to the huge population of China, there will be more 6+ foot men just by raw numbers.

And the reverse is true as well, there will also be way more men 5' or less as well, the averages will even out. Generally become more modest since any outliers can skew numbers more drastically when the specimens used is low. 
Also remember you are comparing the largest weights Available for a single population and you're comparing them to all African Leopards.
If you were to go by locations you can easily find larger or smaller Leopards within certain parks. Again it's going to come down to prey density, terrain, climate and the Individual cat. 

"The prey of leopards varies in different geographical areas. "
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/11250003.2012.687402?needAccess=true& Reply