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Leopard Predation Thread
Leopard Predation Thread
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Leopard Predation Thread
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fouchestudios
This leopard just couldn't pass up an easy meal running by ... he already had a freshly caught wildebeest up in a tree nearby. 
Leopard with Persian Fallow Deer kill.
 *This image is copyright of its original author "Telephoto cameras in the Midtown area of Kazeroon , in the position of an Iranian yellow deer, captured an image of a leopard with his pup. Public Relations Office of the Fars Province Environmental Protection Agency said on Sunday: Iranian environmentalists have previously observed a carnivorous carnivorous yellow deer carcass with signs and symptoms of carnivorous hunting and the presence of a leopard in the area" https://baztab.ir/621862/%d8%ab%d8%a8%d8...%86%d8%b7/   (02-12-2020, 01:02 PM)johnny rex Wrote:(02-07-2020, 08:43 PM)Luipaard Wrote: Waterbuck kill You know what is crazier? A Leopard killed an Eland Cow, which may be at least four times its size.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author source: Stuarts’ Field Guide to Tracks & Signs of Southern, Central & East African Wildlife by Chris Stuart, Mathilde Stuart As you can see, a Leopard is opportunistic enough to kill small antelope like Ugandan kob or large antelope like Eland Cows. (02-13-2020, 09:50 AM)Styx38 Wrote:(02-12-2020, 01:02 PM)johnny rex Wrote:(02-07-2020, 08:43 PM)Luipaard Wrote: Waterbuck kill Somehow, smaller big cats (including cougars) are just too strong with respect to their body size. That's very impressive. It leads me thinking, can a determined healthy male leopard kill a sick tigress or lioness? 
Leopards attacked baboon sleeping roosts six times and made three kills. We were able to monitor these attacks because we sleep at or near the baboon roosts whenever possible. One of the two baboon groups under study regularly slept in the tall Acacia nigrescens trees at our
camp. There have been no verified leopard attacks at this camp roost, possibly because leopards are avoiding humans. There were three leopard attacks, including one kill of an adult female (X troop) during 45 nights at a roost 4 km from camp and utilized primarily by W troop. Alarm calls attracted us to three other leopard attacks upon baboons roosting near but not directly at the camp. These attacks resulted in one kill of an adult female (Z troop) and one kill of an adult male (C troop). There were two incidental records of leopard predation upon baboons. In both cases leopard spoor were found near a fresh baboon carcass, one an adult male and one a subadult male.12 Also a leopard was seen attacking a baboon roost at dusk. but the attack was disrupted by the presence of observers.13 Our records of leopards attacking baboon roosts at night are a unique set of observations and are briefly described here. August 14, 1978. At 0400 there was an outburst of alarm barks by Z troop baboons at a roost two kilometres from camp. There was a second set of alarm barks at 0600. When the observer arrived at 0620, a leopard had a fresh adult female baboon kill 15 metres up a tall Diospyros mespiliformis tree. The carcass was still completely intact and the kill probably coincided with the second set of alarm barks. Approximately twenty baboons were threatening the leopard from within ten metres in the same tree. Upon seeing the observer, the leopard abandoned the kill and fled from the tree as baboons scattered in avoidance. The leopard returned later that day to consume the kill. July 7, 1979. At 0200 an adult leopard attacked the C troop roost 600 m from camp. We arrived to find the leopard 15 metres up a tall D. mespiliformis tree in the middle of the roost. Numerous baboons were also in this tree and within ten metres of the leopard. The leopard was standing on a thick branch near the trunk and the baboons were on smaller, terminal branches. The leopard descended from the tree and ran away a minute after we arrived. July 12, 1979. At dusk (1830) we were attracted again to an outburst of alarm barks near camp. When we arrived a leopard was dragging a freshly-killed adult male baboon along the ground beneath the roost. Upon our arrival the leopard abandoned the carcass, which was still completely intact except for a slashed throat. Evidence suggested that the baboon had been ambushed while sitting on or near the ground in dense cover. The baboon apparently fled up a Croton megalobotrys tree but was caught and pulled to the ground. We collected specimens and measurements from the carcass and returned it to the kill site. The leopard did not return to the carcass, but instead hunted baboons in the trees for another two hours, unsuccessfully. July 29, 1979. A leopard was at the W troop roost when observers arrived at 2115. Baboons gave continuous alarm barks as the leopard remained below on the ground. The observers then moved away to avoid interfering any further. Subsequent alarm barks suggested that the leopard climbed the roost trees in attack, but this was not confirmed. The leopard remained at the roost until at least 0230 and no kill was made. August 11. 1979. An adult and immature (2/3 siz.e) leopard attacked W troop at 2115 and hunted baboons unsuccessfully until sunrise. The leopards made several separate attacks into different trees and one of these attacks lasted for 2 ½ hours. During this interval the adult leopard was 10 m. up an A. nigrescens tree in which an adult female baboon was apparently “trapped” at the end of a branch. The trapped baboon gave “fear” barks during the entire interval and remained at the branch tip out of the leopard's reach. The immature leopard was five metres up this same tree but did not actively hunt. September 25, 1979. An adult and immature leopard attacked X troop at 0355. The baboons gave continuous alarm barks and both leopards were observed ten metres up a Diospyrus mespiliformis tree in the middle of the roost. The leopards descended from the tree five minutes later and slowly walked away. Observers left the roost area to avoid disturbing the leopards any further. Upon our return l ½ hours later the leopards had killed an adult female baboon. They consumed part of the kill then cached it in a tree before finishing it later that day. These preliminary observations suggest the following features of baboon-leopard interactions: 1. Leopards only attack baboons at night or at dusk. No attacks have been seen during thousands of hours of daytime observation. 2. When leopards attack a baboon roost they may remain at the roost for long intervals, and sometimes for the entire night. Two kills appeared to have been made at least an hour after leopards first attacked the roost. Thus, surprise is not a necessary element of successful attack, although one kill appeared to have been made in surprise. 3. Baboons seek refuge on the outer, terminal branches of tall trees, especially Acacia nigrescens and Diospyros mespiliformis. Leopards weigh significantly more than most baboons and may be unable to capture baboons that take refuge on small branches. 4. How leopards actually make kills is uncertain. A male baboon killed at dusk appeared to have been ambushed on the ground, but most attacks occur at night in the roost trees and none of the night kills were observed directly. 5. Earlier studies and anecdotal accounts suggest that adult male baboons may harass and attack leopards in some circumstances. 4 Our observations to date are inconclusive. We have seen baboons harass spotted cals on three occasions during the daytime. On one occasion a. half-grown, immature leopard was chased for 200 metres by half of W troop to an isolated Acacia hebeclada bush where it was‘mobbed’ for 20 minutes by baboons of all age/ sex categories. On two other occasions adult male baboons chased a large spotted cat, either a leopard or a cheetah. The predatory habits of these two cats are strikingly different, and specific field identifications are still needed to distinguish between baboon responses to these predators. These observations agree with the general lore that adult male baboons sometimes harass medium-sized predators. However, almost all anecdotal accounts of male baboons harassing leopards have been in the daytime. The relevance of daytime observations to the leopard's nocturnal hunting habits is unknown. Leopards appear to enter baboon roosting trees with relative impunity, and we have not yet seen any defence by adult males at night. Leopard and Lion predation upon Chacma Baboons living in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve CURT BUSSE 1980 Cowlishaw [1994] investigated patterns of predation in baboons and found that leopards are more likely to take adults than juveniles and more likely to take males than females. It was speculated that adult male baboons are more predated on by leopards than any other age-sex class because they tend to spend more time on the periphery of the troop and further away from their nearest neighbour. Adult males also undertake solitary periods while transferring between troops. While leopards in our study also focussed heavily on adults, we found no preference for one gender over the other. Attempts to explain how the leopards managed to kill such a high number of baboons are speculative. Busse [1980] suggested that leopards only attack baboons at night or at dusk, likely because nocturnal hunts on baboons may be more successful [Cowlishaw, 1994]. However, 70% of all kills on baboons in this study were made dur- ing the day ( fig. 1 ), thus questioning the widely accepted notion that leopards are primarily nocturnal. The lack of temporal differences in baboon and non-baboon kills suggest that the leopards in this study likely hunt baboons opportunistically, or at least in patterns similar to how they hunt their prey as a whole. However, deviation from uniformity of the combined kills (baboon and non-baboon) suggests that the leopards did not hunt prey at random. The non-significant distribution from unifor- mity in the baboon kills can possibly be attributed to small sample size; however, the distribution in figure 1 is atypical for leopards [Hayward and Slotow, 2009], and it should therefore be considered that this may be learned behaviour by the local leop- ard population. The high predation on baboons at this study site can also possibly be attributed to an optimal number of baboons; small isolated groups would be too hard to find, while a large population, with large group formations, would potentially be too dangerous to hunt. For a leopard to catch and kill a baboon still requires a certain level of skill that is likely to vary among individuals, as has been shown among not only leopards [Bothma and Walker, 1999], but also other carnivores hunting dangerous prey [Pow- er and Compion, 2009]. Leopard A (a young subadult female), despite being inexpe- rienced ( table 2 ), successfully caught and killed 5 adult baboons ( fig. 2 ). This leopard was at the age where she would have only very recently left her mother, it is possible that she acquired this skill while still learning to hunt. Genetic tests revealed no ma- ternal or sibling relationship between the study leopards, so this theory was beyond evaluation in this study. However, this raises the question of how leopards acquire skills to kill dangerous prey and to what extent such skill is passed on to members of the population, and this should be studied in the future. Unusually High Predation on Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus) by Female Leopards (Panthera pardus) in the Waterberg Mountains, South Africa E. Jooste R.T. Pitman W. van Hoven L.H. Swanepoel (02-15-2020, 11:31 PM)Diamir2 Wrote: Leopards attacked baboon sleeping roosts six times and made three kills. We were able to monitor these attacks because we sleep at or near the baboon roosts whenever possible. One of the two baboon groups under study regularly slept in the tall Acacia nigrescens trees at our This might show how important the night can be for a leopard. It seems like they have no trouble going after male baboons during the night but at day they usually wont go near them.  *This image is copyright of its original author
First known case of a leopard killing a sun bear (cub)
"During a camera-trap survey in 2018 in Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar, researchers photographed a male leopard (Panthera pardus) carrying a sun bear cub by the throat – the first reported case of probable predation on sun bears by leopards."  *This image is copyright of its original author Source: WCS Myanmar and 'Large carnivores as potential predators of sun bears, including probable predation on a sun bear cub by a leopard in Myanmar'
Sri Lankan Leopard attempts a Calf kill and promptly get's introduced to Momma and Pappa!
Milinda Wattegedara |
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