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Leopard
Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)
Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)
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Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)
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Credits to Leopard Land National Park.
The number of the rarest felines on the Land of the Leopard has increased! National Park scientific employees have finished the processing of data obtained from the Amur leopard photomonitoring conducted in 2017. According to the results, 84 adult spotty predators and 19 cubs were documented on the specially protected natural territory within the previous year.  *This image is copyright of its original author
Does anyone believe the Amur leopards are surviving in the Korean Peninsula?
Female and cubs with sika deer kill, photo by Valeriy Maleev.
 *This image is copyright of its original author Next photos by Toshiji Fukuda. A similar sika deer predation incident.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
Land of the Leopard National Park, in Primorsky Krai.
 *This image is copyright of its original author
   Does anybody has an idea why Amur leopard is smaller than Persian leopard? They both live in the North in cold habitats and according to Bergman's rule should be big both. Persian is the largest subspecie of all but Amur is not big at all. I guess the winter in Far East is much harsher than winter in Caucasus and prey density is smaller. Answering of this question could give answer why Amur tiger is not larger than Bengal tiger despite some theoretical reasons for that. (07-27-2018, 11:23 PM)Wolverine Wrote: Although the largest leopard skull comes from Iran, I've read that the largest recorded individuals (90 kg / 198 lbs) actually come from the Bushveld. Male African rainforest leopards seem pretty big, being the largest carnivore in that ecosystem could mean also very large individuals in a tropical environment. My opinion is that it probably has to do in part with prey size and density, and part from the competition. Amur leopards prey more on smaller animals than tigers do probably to avoid further competition over a limited food source, thus a larger size could mean a disadvantage. Also snow leopards are similar in size to Amur leopards, so no need to be bigger to protect against the cold. In the case of Siberian and Bengal tigers from the North, a zoologist told me that it probably had to do with the fact that in Northern India tigers live with more species of big herbivores than Amur tigers, but also the genetic bottleneck in Far East caused by humans, as @peter has pointed out how modern weights are lower than in the last century among that population.
Yes, probably the presence of tiger is also a size limiting factor, as we can see in Sri Lanka where the absence of tigers has resulted in larger size of local leopards than in India.
But 50-100 years ago there were still a lot of Caspian tigers in many locations inhabited by the Persian leopard. So if the theory of tiger influence on leopards size is correct Persian leopards centuries ago should has been smaller than now, when this cat brecame the apex predator in Iran, but I am not competent to answer on this question, there is need of old data. (07-27-2018, 11:23 PM)Wolverine Wrote: Does anybody has an idea why Amur leopard is smaller than Persian leopard? They both live in the North in cold habitats and according to Bergman's rule should be big both. Persian is the largest subspecie of all but Amur is not big at all. I guess the winter in Far East is much harsher than winter in Caucasus and prey density is smaller. Answering of this question could give answer why Amur tiger is not larger than Bengal tiger despite some theoretical reasons for that. My money is on Genepool depression... (07-29-2018, 10:33 AM)Rishi Wrote:(07-27-2018, 11:23 PM)Wolverine Wrote: Does anybody has an idea why Amur leopard is smaller than Persian leopard? They both live in the North in cold habitats and according to Bergman's rule should be big both. Persian is the largest subspecie of all but Amur is not big at all. I guess the winter in Far East is much harsher than winter in Caucasus and prey density is smaller. Answering of this question could give answer why Amur tiger is not larger than Bengal tiger despite some theoretical reasons for that. True, Amur leopard has suffered the harshest gene deppression from all leopard subspecies, but still we need an old data about their size a century ago in order to make conclusion.
Some Amur leopards were big as African leopard, Persian leopard, and Sri lankan leopard 100 years ago from old records. Their size has been smaller due to density of prey animal is low and leopard population was also less than 100.
I think the biggest leopard is the African leopard in rainforest of Central and Eastern Africa. It is simple that why Siberian tiger is smaller than past: low number of prey animals and genetic bottleneck. (07-29-2018, 09:56 AM)Wolverine Wrote: Yes, probably the presence of tiger is also a size limiting factor, as we can see in Sri Lanka where the absence of tigers has resulted in larger size of local leopards than in India. Well to be honest, I don't know why the notion of Persian leopards being the largest subspecies became so widely accepted in the first place. I find it similar to what happens with Siberian tigers, that are regarded as the largest by most people when in reality that title belongs to Terai tigers. It can be due to that skull from Iran regarded as the largest recorded for some time, and the appearance of some individuals in camera traps. But the biggest looking individuals in camera traps have winter coat, and a zoologist that has worked with leopards told me that record of the Iranian skull is from 1990 and outdated, and that the largest skull known is actually from Western Africa and the second largest is from India. The heaviest Persian leopard was claimed to be 86 kg, and that's less than what Bushveld leopards have weighted. 
Some orientalis from land of the leopard
Source: https://www.facebook.com/amurleo/  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
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