The Great Apes

[Tshokwane]

I'm going to add my two cents here. 

I've been studying gorillas since I was a kid and I've never seen much evidence of leopard predation on gorillas, aside some journals "news" and that kind of stuff, but it always has to be taken with a sizeable grain of salt.

Dian Fossey, that studied gorillas for about 30 years, +20 of those studying mountain gorillas, didn't mention once(that I remember) leopards being a threat to gorillas on her book.

Can it be done? Can a leopard kill an adult male? Yes, I think he could. A leopard is a perfect killing machine, and has the tools for it.

But that shouldn't be the question. The question should be ¿would it be done?

Would a leopard specifically hunt an adult male? I say to that no, without a doubt. 

1- Leopards, especially experienced adult males are very, very wary of what they hunt and, like every predator, they make sure they don't waste any excess energy on very risky hunts that he knows he probably won't be able to pull it off. The exception to this is when a leopard is extremely hungry, but for each and every other ocassion, why would he hunt ana dult male when he can gor for the much smaller and manageable females and/or infants? It makes absolutely no sense.

2- A silverback is more than a match for a leopard and this is reflected in the fact that they sleep on the ground, not on the trees. Granted, they also do this because they're too heavy to make nests on the trees, but aside that it shows that they can handle anything that puts the group in risk.

That a leopard could potentially injure a male is irrelevant when you know gorillas and what they can do for thier group. They just throw themselves at whatever poses a threat to the group's safety, and so the initial intention of the leopard to hunt there would turn badly quickly. 

As an addition to this, silverbacks are also the ones that leave their natal groups and roam the forest alone in search for females, so once again they should be "vulnerable" to predation, yet it hasn't been reported that a lone male died because of a hunt.

To put it simply, for a leopard, regardless of his size, the risks of taking on such an opponent far outweights the benefits of trying to make such a kill. Reply