The Great Apes

[Shadow]

(10-14-2018, 04:57 PM)Tshokwane Wrote: 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.

Yes I agree, that in normal situations leopards aren´t attacking silverbacks, it would be against every instinct of predators to choose the hardest target. My point is just, that from sources what I have seen, I have no doubt, that leopard is able to confrontate also silverback, result of that fight then again is impossible to know. As I said, that fight is for sure fierce as that one case show, both dead. George Schaller tells that he was there himself and saw bodies. He is actually still alive, maybe someone could ask from him. Michael Fay too is still alive, I think(?).  Anyway Walter Baumgartel, Michael Fay and George Schaller are for me reliable people and I haven´t found any reason, that they would have been lying, when telling about their findings.

But I have found only that case with silverback and then that case at zoo only ones, where one attack for sure was no sneak attack and then another maybe not sneak attack or then it was sneak attack which went wrong. Other cases mentioned by Baumgartel and others, where adult males have been killed, those have been night time surprise attacks, which is normal way for leopard to do it. I personally have no doubt, that leopards do predate gorillas, so many sources tell about it. Even today it is mentioned in many places, that only natural enemy of gorilla is leopard. Reply