The Great Apes

[peter]

WHY LEOPARDS ARE ABLE TO KILL GORILLAS

It seems that some posters are unwilling to accept that an adult male leopard is both willing and able to kill a primate at least two times his size. The infomation posted by Shadow, collected by people in the know, is however plenty convincing: there's no question whatsoever that leopards have attacked, killed and consumed gorillas, including adult males.

But what about the great strength of adult male gorillas? Should be telling in conflict, no? Nobody is doubting the strength of gorillas, but other animals hunted and killed by leopards also are impressive in every way. We just didn't see it.

One of the first things one needs to understand is leopards are big cats with a lot of experience in the department of primates. They have hunted them many thousands of years ago and they still hunt them today. 

Something else that needs to be considered is aggression. All big cats are born hunters with many thousands of years of experience. Only the most able bred. All wild adults have the psychological ability to attack and kill large and dangerous animals. When they see a real fight just in front of them, people often are unable to understand what is happening. The fury often is just too much for many. I've seen grown people run away from an enraged captive tiger, bars or no bars. Leopards are no different in this respect. Some of the trainers I interviewed consider adult leopards as outright psychopaths. What they were really saying is they, after many years, were still unable to understand the aggression they saw. Not of this world. And it isn't.  

One of the most able in this department was a captive female I saw in Switserland many years ago. She also was the smallest adult female I ever saw. I think she was about 50 pounds. Most dogs are heavier, that is. The day we visited the trainer with his animals on a market somewhere in a small town, she wasn't having her best day. The males interested in a chat were chased out of the cage in a way I never seen before. The only one she accepted was the trainer, a very big young man. He too, however, knew what she was capable of, as he had been wounded many times. In his opinion, she was able to kill him in seconds if she wanted to. After the demonstration I saw, I readily agreed. Aggression in overdrive, it was. If we add the speed, agility, strength and weapons of leopards, it's easy to understand why a 120-pound wild male leopard is able to destroy a big male gorilla two or three times his weight.

Leopards, like all other wild big cats, do subspecies. In most part of central-western Africa, they're quite large. The most muscular skulls I saw belonged to male leopards shot in that part of Africa. I've seen longer, more elevated and wider skulls, but quite a few skulls from leopards shot in that part of Africa were heavy and well-developed, especially in the teeth department. The most impressive mandibulas and canines I saw.

Here's an example of what I mean. The picture was taken by poster Wanderfalke in the Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde Stuttgart in 2012. The skull right belonged to a wild male jaguar. It was one of the the longest and most elevated I saw. The skull left belonged to a male leopard from western Africa. Although smaller in all departments, it was, even without the canines, a mighty impressive skull:

*This image is copyright of its original author

 

In another life, when out on your own, never ever underestimate a leopard. Lions and tigers evolved to deal with large mammals. Leopards evolved to deal with creatures like us and then some. Most unfortunately, they're very good at it.

And the gorilla? Powerful beyond understanding and definitely capable of destroying even the largest leopard. But a predator is very different from a primate. Reply