African Leopards

[Jimmy]

(01-30-2019, 02:10 AM)Pckts Wrote:

(01-29-2019, 05:57 PM)Jimmy Wrote:

(01-29-2019, 03:37 PM)Sanju Wrote: According to a BBC article, the Sri Lankan leopard an endangered cat has evolved to become a rather large leopard subspecies with very large males reaching almost 220 lb (100 kg), due to the fact that it is an apex predator without competition by other large wild cat species in the country. The leopard is sympatric with the Sri Lankan Sloth Bear. On the island of Sri Lanka, leopards are the reigning top predator and, with no other big cat to compete with, they have become super-sized – the biggest leopards in the world besides Central African Congo leopards and Persian leopards.

*This image is copyright of its original author

“'Ivan' is reputedly the biggest leopard in the world (credit: BBC / Paul Williams)”

Elsewhere they are elusive predators, but here they have little to fear and can be seen proudly sauntering along the roads of Yala, the country’s most famous national park.Boasting the highest density of leopards anywhere in the world, Yala is also home to the biggest of them all. Weighing in at almost 100kg, Ivan the one-eyed leopard enjoys a notoriety in these parts. It wasn’t long before we detected the heat signature of a large male as it appeared from behind a bush. I was startled by how big it was. Leopards filmed elsewhere in the world, but this cat looked more like a Jaguar – a more muscular, powerful animal with larger jaws.
 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141013-...ds-of-yala

He seems to have much experience with leopard, however I truely have hard time seeing difference in proportion between leopards of mainland and those from Srilanka like he mentions more muscular, powerful animal with larger jaws, also by logic this seems slightly exaggerated (with great due respect to him) they don't normally hunt anything abnormal than leopards of mainland, if they hunted sambar, water buffaloes, wild boars more regularly or compete with mugger and break turtle shells like jags, it would have surely gone through some morphologically noticeable difference, unlike mainland leopards they dont have to bother about wild dogs or tiger prowling behind or displacing them if they killed something big, they could hunt their choice prey, stalk these at will if they want, it seems these are still not their choice prey, the leopards got big but the prey remains the same it seems -chital, only this time without the need to take the kill over the tree or under cover and possibly getting larger only cuz they can eat all they want and they dont need to shed extra weight to dash off swiftly onto trees. i don't see features that seem different, probably he should have casually referred to it's great size overall in absolute terms rather than going into details, cuz relatively they don't look different. Adult sambars still seems formidable adverseries.

Shaji Mohammed https://www.facebook.com/shajimohammed.kb
Told me that Sri Lanken Leopards are smaller than their African Counterparts and similar in size to their Indian cousins.

I can only speak on one wild Male Indian Leopard and a few captive ones I've seen compared to the One wild African Leopard and the many captive ones I've seen and you can definitely tell that African ones are more dense, especially in the neck and head region. 
African Leopards just look like the bigger cat to me.

that's some insightful information.In Asia, there is undeniable 'bear' factor, all types of bear which makes hauling and stashing kills for later consumption worthless, they will eventually be smelled out and overtaken. Asian leopards are more generalist cat and are designed that way, it seems.
Also @Pckts how farfetched do you think that ivan the one eyed leopard being claimed the world's largest leopard, 100 kilos leopard is no joke, i find that super impressive almost a jaguar like specimen, i can see at least the Persian leopards challenging the claim. Reply