Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor)

[Styx38]

(05-11-2019, 05:11 PM)Pckts Wrote: Again, comparing prey from anywhere else on earth to Africa is a losing battle. There is no place on earth that comes close to holding as many herbivores as Africa, even south Africa as you stated for some reason.
Indian leopards for sure have less compared but they still have a large prey biomass that won't be seen in the mountains of Iran.  But persians definitely prey on good sized animals and thus they are one of the largest sub species but their weights aren't unseen elsewhere, we have leopards in the 90kg range from Africa as well just not as often but again, comparing the amount of African Leopards to Persian Leopards, it's not close.

It is not a losing battle because Leopards in Africa and India rarely kill adult animals. In fact, experts like Seidensticker did not believe Leopards could take down adult sambar. Recently, Lovari dispelled the myth and stated that Leopards can kill prey over 100 kg, but you will still get naysayers when comparing them to mountain lion killing feats.

If you see many studies of Indian national parks, you won't see Leopards attacking adult sambar deer, but rather focusing on juveniles of most ungulates with some mid-sized adult spotted deer. On the other hand,  Kittle's Yala study documents  three sambar stags killed by a Leopard(s).

In an Persian Documentary, one of the main kills featured was a large Caspian Red Deer Hind (or cow). It's rare to see Leopards tackling animals so big on major documentaries set in the Lion dominated Savannas or Tiger dominated jungles:

Quote:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author



^Leopard bite marks from strangulation?

*This image is copyright of its original author

from 17:55

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3kaD9zGnuM

If this was in Lion or Tiger zones, then Leopards won't be making kills this big frequently. They will focus on easy juveniles or small-mid sized antelope to cache in the trees. 

This is why Iran and Sri Lanka produce more robust/bigger individuals than those areas.


Speaking about Big cats, Jaguars in the Pantanal have a smaller prey base than Leopards in Africa and India, but are still larger and more robust due to their top predator status. This proves that a big cat's size will be correlated with a moderate amount of mid-large prey, and how often it can eat the prey without being displaced from its kill by a bigger carnivore. Reply