Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor)

[Styx38]

@Pckts 

Yes. We should call it quits. I agree that Pantanal Jaguars will be bigger than all the subspecies of leopards on an average. I also agree that Leopards that are top predators in these areas will produce more large individuals by proportion compared to the other parts.

Forgive me for this part, but I want to refute a few points.

1. Small nitpick, but isn't Botswana considered Southern Africa.

2. The study you posted is not in the Democratic Republic of Congo, since Mandrills are mentioned in the study. Mandrills are found Gabon, West Congo (not part of the DR Congo), and other areas on the West. On the other hand, Okapis are only in the DR of Congo, so they obviously won't appear in the scats.

As mentioned, Leopards are still responsible for the death of adult Okapis. On the other hand, there isn't so much on Leopards killing adult zebra.

In fact, adult zebras are so rare that there is even doubt about leopards being capable of taking them down (just like the Sambar studies I posted):

Quote:Leopards, for example, hunt alone, so it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a leopard to kill an adult zebra on its own. But they can and do kill zebra foals.

https://www.certapet.com/zebra-attack-baby-zebra/


For Kudu, they can kill Kudu cows, but it will be less frequent than kudu babies since big kills will get stolen by their competitors. This is why rob mentions these are the "biggest", since it will be very rare for them to tackle down anything bigger.

They still pointed out that the density of hyenas is correlated with the amount of leopards hiding their kills up trees. Even if leopards take their kills up trees at less frequency in India, they still focus on smaller prey compared to lions and tigers, especially when they are coexisting.

Think about it. A leopard will invest too much energy in tackling a Zebra, be it mare or stallion. Once it makes the kill, a lion or hyena may take it away before the leopard can replenish its energy and nutrition. That's why leopards usually go for small to mid-sized animals in these areas.

Okapi males seem to be pretty big.

Quote: Females are typically a little heavier at 495 to 770 lbs. (225 to 350 kilograms) while males weigh 440 to 660 lbs. (200 to 300 kg).

https://www.livescience.com/56233-okapi-facts.html

And they have still been observed to kill cows.

You can argue about the zebra looking more robust, but it still won't change the correlation of mass of prey with leopard size.

Quote: Wrote:As the leopard's body mass range crosses the body mass threshold for obligate large vertebrate carnivory (>45% of predator body mass; Carbone et al., 1999), smaller body mass populations of leopards might be expected to prey on smaller vertebrates. Leopards in the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province support this, with rodents comprising 9% of the total prey species killed (Ott, 2004). Other populations of leopards that prey largely on suboptimally sized prey (Grobler & Wilson, 1972) may also be smaller in body mass than those preying on large ungulates. Limited data from Israel and Oman suggest that small leopards there largely prey on smaller body sized species (Ilani, 1981; Spalton & Willis, 1999).

This is the reason why I posted about mass is because leopards have more frequency of eating large adult ungulates in areas with the absence of competitors. This leads to a greater amount of larger, robust individuals in these areas.

My argument was more frequency of large prey will result in more larger leopards.

I guess since I made my point, and you made yours we should end it. Reply