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Leopard Predation Thread
Leopard Predation Thread
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Leopard Predation Thread
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Wild Boar killed by Leopard.
 *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfysaqrn40k/
Young Leopard with a Lechwe kill.
 *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.instagram.com/p/-N77N4ujrz/
Leopard kills Wildebeest.
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author "It was an afternoon to remember – the stars must have aligned for us. We had been watching some lions close to the Pilanesberg Centre earlier in the afternoon when we heard rumours of a leopard in a tree on the way to the Mankwe Hide. We are not in the habit of chasing sightings but we really wanted to see a leopard. We headed off in a puff of… fairy dust. Excited about finding him still in his tree, we jostled with all the other onlookers for a view but it was short-lived. He soon got up, jumped down from the tree and walked across the road in front of us before heading into the long grass and disappearing. We searched for a while but he was gone. However, we were happy we had seen him and headed off to Red Rocks for the obligatory ‘hope to spot a leopard at sunset on a rock’ drive. Finding nothing, we turned back and headed towards Bakgatla, our campsite during our stay in the park. On our way we noted the strange lack of traffic but then, the reason became clear. As we rounded a bend before Tshukudu eNtsho Drive, a leopard had just taken down a wildebeest. It must have happened split seconds before we got there, as the wildebeest was still fighting for its life. We lost track of time in all the excitement but it must have been about seven to 10 minutes before the gnu took its last breath. We recognised the leopard as the one called Orion. He is a beautiful large animal, but the wildebeest was, of course, much larger. Orion had to hold on for dear life and did not let go of his deadly grip on the wildebeest’s throat until the job was done. He then proceeded to drag his prey to nearby cover, managing just a couple of metres at a time before he had to rest. As he gripped and dragged the large body between rests, he nervously scanned the surroundings to ensure no scavengers or other predators were lurking close by. He was determined not to lose his hard-won dinner. We were the first to arrive from the Red Rocks side as all the rest had been following him from the other side. With a perfect view, we sat and enjoyed the scene while firing away with our Canons. What a privilege to see this drama unfold right in front of us, a mere 18 m from our vehicle. This was the sighting of a lifetime and the excitement served as proof. We stayed as long as we could before heading off back to camp. At our first encounter, a voluntary ranger had told us Orion’s story. He had recently left his mother and was looking for his own territory, hence his willingness to be seen. He was also clearly hungry and not concerned with hiding while he hunted. We were later told that Orion had reappeared and used the cars as a screen to hunt the wildebeest. Apparently he was still in the area the next morning, having eaten his share and fighting off the brown hyenas overnight. By mid-morning the bush cleanup crew (brown hyena and jackal) had been there and no evidence of the day before existed, except for our memories and the photos we took. The Pilanesberg just continues to deliver…" Photo story: Frank Heitmüller This story was taken from Pilanesberg Self-Drive https://www.hphpublishing.co.za/blogs/news/oriens-kill  
PDF on leopard diet in Gir national park.
http://www.carnivoreconservation.org/files/thesis/maheshwari_2006_msc.pdf
Big Sri Lankan male going after wild boar in Wilpattu National Park
 *This image is copyright of its original author Pathum Neeliya
In Horton Plains National Park, Sambar made up the largest proportion of Leopard diet.
'Sambar appear to compose the largest proportion of leopard diet here with >75% of scat containing sambar remains (n > 30; Ranawana et al. 1998, Rajapakse 2003).' source: Kittle, A. M., & Watson, A. C. (2018). "Density of leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya) in Horton Plains National Park in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka." Mammalia, 82(2), 183-187.
A stunning photograph of a leopard with a porcupine kill
 *This image is copyright of its original author naturein_focus
The Bull Eland killed by the Leopard was around 450-500 kg, according to these authors.
This is the lowest estimation of Eland Bull killed by the Leopard. "A single leopard has been known to bring down a full - grown bull eland , weighing over 454 kg ( 1,000 lb )" Wild Cats by Caroline Brett · 1992 · "Leopards have been known to kill bull eland weighing 500kg ( 1 , 100lb )" source: Predators: Great Hunters of the Natural World by Malcolm Penny, Caroline Brett, Gaby Roslin · 1995
Here's yet another leopard going after a water buffalo cow despite the presence of the mother and/or herd:
กลุ่มงานวิจัยสัตว์ป่า Wildlife Research Division
Indochinese with boar kill.  *This image is copyright of its original author
@Lycaon @
It is interesting to Leopards cache prey on trees in environments outside of Africa. The only Leopard subspecies that I have not seen hoist prey up a tree is the Persian Leopard. Anyway, here is a bit on Persian Leopard kill sites. They kill Urial Rams, Bezoar Goats and Wild Boar. There also other animals, like livestock, domestic dogs, foxes, porcupines and etc. "Young leopards killed both young and adult prey equally (50.0% adult versus 50.0% young), whereas adult leopards killed a preponderance of adult prey (88.1% adult versus 11.9% young; Fisher’s exact test, P = 0.003). Adult male urials and bezoar goats killed by the leopards were on average 7.1 ± 0.4 and 6.9 ± 0.3 years old. Four of 6 wild pig remains were young adults (< 2 years)." Farhadinia, M. S., Johnson, P. J., Hunter, L. T., & Macdonald, D. W. (2018). Persian leopard predation patterns and kill rates in the Iran–Turkmenistan borderland. Journal of Mammalogy, 99(3), 713-723. While four of the Wild Pigs were sub-adults, two were confirmed to be adults. This was confirmed by Dr. Farhadina himself.  *This image is copyright of its original author Speaking of caching kills, here are the areas where Persian Leopards store their prey.  *This image is copyright of its original author Fig. 1 Different types of kill hoarding, known as caching behaviour, in Persian leopards in Tandoureh National Park and surrounding areas along the Iran Turkmenistan borderland. a an urial ram under a tree, b an urial ram in dense vegetation, c a wild pig inside a rocky hollow, d a bezoar goat among cliffs in high elevations, e & f urial rams under cliffs at the end of valleys, g left image shows the position of a dog, which is zoomed in the right image, next to communal lands in the far background, and h a dog concealed among cliffs (Photos by M. Farhadinia, K. Hobeali, P. Behnoud, P. Moghadas and S. Firouzi) source: Farhadinia, M. S., Michelot, T., Johnson, P. J., Hunter, L. T., & Macdonald, D. W. (2020). Understanding decision making in a food-caching predator using hidden Markov models. Movement ecology, 8(1), 9. It is also interesting to note is that Luke Hunter, who has worked with African Leopards, was also involved in this project.
Leopard with a Sambar kill.
You can see the antlers, so it is a Sambar Stag or Bull.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author source: https://www.facebook.com/101478698379495...213274343/ https://www.facebook.com/Sariska-Jungle-..._tn__=kC-R
A Sri Lankan leopard with what seems to be an Indian flying fox
 *This image is copyright of its original author Mohan Hathnapitiya |
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