Animal Strength Feats

[Styx38]

(03-29-2021, 06:47 PM)Pckts Wrote: “dragged prey 2-3 times its own bodyweight vertically up a tree.”

No Leopard is hoisting a kill 2-3 times their own body weight up a tree. 

“You took the least impressive case vs the most impressive case for your comparison. They have dragged much heavier prey than an impala-sized one and you know this; young giraffes, rhino calves, young buffalo, young zebra's, ... Carrying this straight up a tree requires a serious amount of strength from your jaws, forelimbs and neck. Lion whisperer Kevin Richardson stated that a lion could not do the equivalent.”

That is literally the most hunted prey for either cat and it’s a common occurrence. Dragging calves of large animals doesn’t mean they are large and the fact that every single calf you named was either eaten or smaller than the Leopard isn’t impressive.

And why would a Lion be as proficient at tree climbing as a Leoprd? They can barely climb a tree on their own and once again you need to read post #296 again.

https://www.taylorsstrength.co.uk/powerlifting-formulas-is-wilks-best-and-what-are-the-alternatives/

I am not fully sure if they can drag animals 2-3 times their weight, but they are documented to drag up animals between 100-170 kg.

For example, a Leopard managed to drag up a Kudu Cow in Sabi Sands, which weigh an average of 155 kg (Fursetenburg 2009).

*This image is copyright of its original author

For reference, here is the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWW4ZJ0jmCw



Now the Kudu Cow is partially eaten, but it still looks the body is mostly intact, so the Leopard definitely dragged a 100+ kg (minimal estimate) carcass up a tree.



Interestingly one paper theorized that a Leopard can hoist up to 140% of its own weight up a tree, since the biggest cache was a 166 kg Buffalo calf.


"Leopards had a >50% probability of hoisting kills that were 40% to 140% of their body mass (Fig. 2).

The largest kill hoisted by a leopard in our study was a juvenile African buffalo Syncerus caffer (≈166 kg). Contrary with expectations, a leopard was 23% less likely to hoist its kill during the resource pulse than outside the pulse (odds ratio = 0·768). No factors relating to habitat or climate had a significant effect on hoisting probability."


source: Balme, Guy A., et al. "Caching reduces kleptoparasitism in a solitary, large felid." Journal of Animal Ecology 86.3 (2017): 634-644.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley....2656.12654




There was another case of a 135 kg Hartebeest that was hoisted up a tree by a female Leopard.

Of course, there is the possibility that the carcass was partially eaten.

"maximum weight of a cached prey species was 135 kg, where an adult female cached a red hartebeest. However, estimated weight of cached animals is probably an overestimate since the carcass can be partly eaten and intestines removed before caching in trees."


source: Swanepoel, Lourens Hendrik. Ecology and conservation of leopards, Panthera pardus, on selected game ranches in the Waterberg region, Limpopo, South Africa. Diss. University of Pretoria, 2009.



Here is a case of Giraffe calves that were 90-110 kg and 125 kg that were hoisted by Leopards in trees.

Of course, they were so decayed that it was hard to tell if many of the body parts were removed.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Source: Scheepers, J.L. & Gilchrist, D. 1991. "Leopard predation on giraffe calves in Etosha National Park."  MADOQUA. 18(I): 49


So what this means is that a 60-70 kg Leopard could hoist 100+ kg carcasses up trees from time to time, and 70+ kg Leopards could pull that off with greater ease.

Of course, partially eaten could range from well eaten to just a chunk missing. Reply