Leopard Predation Thread

[Styx38]

For the Leopard fans, @Luipaard @Twico5 @"LoveAnimals", here are the studies that show Leopards going for large prey.

One thing to note is that although there are no Lions/Leopards/Spotted Hyenas in these regions, there are still competitors like Wolves, Brown Bears and Brown Hyenas in these areas.


a) Sambar Deer:

In Sariska, Sambar Deer made up 45.5% of Leopard diet based on scat. 

From kills (n=29), they may have made about 55% of the diet, with  Sambar Deer Stags making up 15%-16% of kills and Sambar Doe making up 30%-32% of kills. Overall, adult Sambar made up around 45% to 49% of the kills in this study. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

"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)"

source: Mondal, K., et al. "Prey selection, food habits and dietary overlap between leopard Panthera pardus (Mammalia: Carnivora) and re-introduced tiger Panthera tigris (Mammalia: Carnivora) in a semi-arid forest of Sariska Tiger Reserve, Western India." Italian Journal of Zoology 79.4 (2012): 607-616.



Sambar Deer tend to make up a high portion of Leopard diet in Horton Plains National Park (Sri Lanka) and adjacent areas due to their abundance in these regions.


'In Agrapatana, Sambar was most frequently represented in scat samples (59.1%), consistent with probable prey availability, given that the study area is contiguous with Horton Plains National Park (HPNP) where sambar density is estimated to be 66.5/km² (Rajapakse 2003). '

'Previous scat analysis from HPNP found sambar in 75.8% of samples (N=22) (Ranawana et al. 1998). That fewer samples contained Sambar here than in HPNP, and more contained Black-naped Hare and Purple-faced Langurs (Table 3; 13.6% compared to 6.8% and 3.4% in HPNP, Ranawana et al. 1998) hints at variation in prey availability between the core of a protected area such as HPNP and an adjoining yet peripheral area such as Agrapatana.'

source: Kittle, Andrew M., et al. "Notes on the diet and habitat selection of the Sri Lankan Leopard Panthera pardus kotiya (Mammalia: Felidae) in the central highlands of Sri Lanka." Journal of Threatened Taxa 6.9 (2014): 6214-6221.


"Sambar are abundant in HPNP, congregating in large herds in the open grasslands."

"Sambar appear to compose the largest proportion of leopard diet here with >75% of scat containing sambar remains (n > 30; Ranawana et al. 1998, Rajapakse 2003)."

source: Kittle, A. M., & Watson, A. C. (2018). "Density of leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya) in Horton Plains National Park in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka." Mammalia, 82(2), 183-187.



b) Kudu:

Leopards have a high preference for Kudu in areas without any significant competitor, except for Brown Hyenas and Cheetah.

"In the absence of larger predators leopards may prey on slightly larger prey such as greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) in Africa (Stein 2008, Karanth and Sunquist 1995)."

*This image is copyright of its original author

Adult Kudu here made up a good portion of kills. 



The percentage would be about 17%. 



It was also a female Leopard with cubs, so small animals like Duiker were also killed.


source: Stein, A. B. (2008). Ecology and conservation of the leopard (Panthera pardus Linnaeus 1758) in northcentral Namibia. University of Massachusetts Amherst.



c) Red Deer/Elk:

So here is the recent Caucasus Mountains Leopard kill rate. Two sub-adult leopards showed a high preference overall for Caspian Red Deer.

*This image is copyright of its original author

We will be focusing on the Caucasus nature Reserve due to the Caspian Red Deer there.

As can be seen. there are many unchecked clusters, so the researchers were not able to identify the animals killed.

However, they did verify that there were 29 clusters with successful hunts, as in N=29 kills, particularly for the Leopard known as Victoria. The same Leopard killed an Wild Boar Sow and an adult Wolf within a short time of her release.

*This image is copyright of its original author

So even if 10 of the kills are unidentified, 9 of the kills in the next 12 months were Red Deer, which is approx. 31% kill rate. 

For the 6 months, it was 8 verified kills out of 19, or 42% kill rate.

For the Leopard Killy, it was a 21% kill rate of Red Deer in 6 months, and a 16% kill rate of Red Deer in 12 months.

As noted, Killy had more unchecked clusters than Victoria, so there probably more unidentified Deer kill there.

source: Rozhnov, V. V., et al. "Study and Monitoring of Big Cats in Russia." (2019).


In an older study, Leopards were also reported to hunt Kashmir Red Stags, which are now considered an Elk subspecies.

*This image is copyright of its original author

source: Ward, A. E. (1921). Game animals of Kashmir and adjacent hill provinces. J.of Bombay Natural Historical Society., 29, 23–35.


Kashmir Red deer, also known as Hangul, still make up a good portion of Leopard diet despite being overhunted.

'The very low sex ratio and fawn-to-female ratio could be attributed to significant predation by Leopard on all sex and age classes of Hangul and of Black Bear principally on young deer.

Our studies on predator-prey relationships at Dachigam NP have revealed that the Leopard Panthera pardus and the Asiatic Black Bear Ursus thibetanus are the major predators in the area and that the Hangul formed a major proportion (about 25%) of the Leopard diet at Dachigam NP (Iqbal et al. 2004; Ahmad 2006). In other words, 60% of the biomass of the Leopard diet is constituted by Hangul'

source: Ahmad, Khursheed, S. Sathyakumar, and Qamar Qureshi. "Conservation status of the last surviving wild population of hangul or Kashmir deer Cervus elaphus hanglu in Kashmir, India." Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 106.3 (2009): 245.



d) Free-ranging Cattle: 

Leopards showed a strong preference for Cattle in China.

"Figure 2 shows the number of livestock preyed on by the north China leopard within the 4 year study period (2015–2018) in and around the Tieqiaoshan Provincial Nature Reserve. A total of 173 livestock were killed, out of which 125 (72%) were adult cattle, 40 (23%) were calves, and 8 (5%) were sheep.

This study shows that the number of livestock species killed by north China leopards in and around the Tieqiaoshan Provincial Nature Reserve differed significantly. Among the livestock, north China leopards killed more cattle. This is contrary to the findings of [3,25], who mentioned in their studies that leopard killed more goats, followed by sheep. This could probably be due to the reasons that goats are not domesticated in and around of this reserve, and most of the sheep kept are not free-range. Therefore, the free-range system of the farming of cattle practiced in and around the reserve makes it ideal for the north China leopard to prey them. In the free-range system, the cattle roam freely outdoors rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 h each day"

*This image is copyright of its original author

source: Consolee et. al. 2020. Human-Leopard Conflict: An Emerging Issue of North China Leopard Conservation in Tieqiaoshan Provincial Nature Reserve in Shanxi Province, China


 Leopards have a preference for both adult male Cattle as well as juveniles in Iran.

*This image is copyright of its original author

FIGURE 4 Cattle selectivity for natural coloration as a whole, separate natural colors, males and juveniles by leopards in the study area, sites, villages, and owners. Error bars indicate the standard error


"(a) Male cattle are preferred by leopards because males have a larger body mass, and leopards in Iran are among the biggest; (b) juvenile cattle (calves and heifers) are preferred by leopards because they are easy to catch and thus are highly vulnerable to depredation; and © differently colored cattle are neither preferred nor avoided by leopards and taken according to the cattle availability. "


Khorozyan et. al. (2018) Cattle selectivity by leopards suggests ways to mitigate human–leopard conflict



These are the studies I have found so far on Leopards going for large prey.

I am informing you guys since Leopard fans/enthusiasts never pay attention to Leopard diets as much as they do Leopard measurements. Reply