Felids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts

[Apex Titan]

Gaur kills leopard near Coonoor

According to forest sources, the female gaur reportedly impaled the male leopard by pushing its horns into the big cat's stomach, which led to the leopard's death.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

COIMBATORE: The carcass of a three-year-old male leopard and a female gaur was found near Periya Karumbalam in Coonoor in the Nilgiris district on Monday.

According to forest sources, the female gaur reportedly impaled the male leopard by pushing its horns into the big cat's stomach, which led to the leopard's death.

It is suspected that the incident could have happened when one of the gaurs in the herd attacked the leopard.

"During the postmortem examination, we have found that the leopard stomach had gaur meat. We suspect that one of the gaurs in the herd could have attacked the leopard when the big cat was consuming a female gaur which gave birth a month ago," said K.Saravanakumar Assistant Conservator of forest Nilgiris Forest Division.

An autopsy was carried out by the Animal Husbandry department veterinarian Rajan of Thalakuntha and Kannan of Ketti. While the leopard was burnt as per the NTCA guideline in the presence of WWF an NGO and village administrative office (VAO) and the gaur was buried nearby.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/...81920.html



A female gaur and a male leopard were found dead near Periya Karumbalam on Selas road in Coonoor on Monday.

Forest department officials believe that the leopard had hunted the female gaur, which was pregnant and had killed the animal, but was attacked by a herd of gaur of which a female was a part of and had killed the leopard.

Postmortem

A postmortem was conducted on the carcasses of the two animals.

K. Saravanakumar, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Nilgiris division, said that a postmortem had revealed that the leopard had suffered fractured ribs, while its stomach contained gaur meat, indicating the animal had killed and eating the gaur but was then attacked by another large animal or group of animals, leading to its death.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coi...322531.ece


Female gaur killed by the leopard:

*This image is copyright of its original author

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