Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor)

[Styx38]

@Pckts 

1) That Sambar bull (possibly 300+ kg) kill was impressive, along with the occasional sambar hinds (I even posted one on the leopard predation thread).  I guess you could post that kill if anyone tries to prove the Mountain Lion is better by actually similar sized Rocky Mountain Bull elk kills.

Anyway, you made a contradiction here:

Pckts Wrote:Who points out?
If you're only speaking on one study where it says that Kill Sites only showed Juveniles (Only 16 of 50 were fresh) while Scat Samples showed the 2nd most abundant prey item as being Sambar and of course there is no way to know what Age or Sex is in the scat sample.

and 

Pckts Wrote:Sambar were found to be the 2nd most preyed item in the GIR per scat *Lion Dominated*[/quore]

Pckts Wrote:Again, it has to do with prey size, location and tree availability.

And this study states its correlated with spotted hyenas:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Source: Larger Carnivores of the African Savannas By Jacobus du P. Bothma, Clive Walker

Pckts Wrote:"Same thing with Persian leopards and adult Maral deer and Sri Lankan Leopard with Sambar deer (or an Indian Leopard and Sambar deer in Tiger-less habitat)."

^ Nice cherrypicking of my quote. 

"For example, the leopards in the Congo have been known to kill adult Okapi, at least more frequently than Savanna Leopards have been known to take on adult zebra.

There are some occasional instances of plains leopards killing something as big animals like adult zebra, but that is quite rare, while there were many more observations and records of Rainforest Leopards taking down similar sized Okapi despite being lesser studied, documented and photographed.
Same thing with Persian leopards and adult Maral deer and Sri Lankan Leopard with Sambar deer (or an Indian Leopard and Sambar deer in Tiger-less habitat)."

^In case anyone didn't see this was part of my argument: frequency of big kills. 

We know they can make occasional large kills in the carnivore dominated areas.  The question: How often can they get away with big kills with other serious competitors?

For example, in a Tiger dominated area, a Leopard made a rare adult female sambar kill, but still less compared to the total amount of young and juvenile kills (6.4% juvenile/subadult kills vs. 1.8% adult kill):

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu/804/1/majmudar_a_thesis_wildlife%20science_red..pdf


Now in a place where Tigers were briefly extirpated, a Leopard made more adult male and female sambar kills than subadults or fawns ( 15% and 31% adults vs 11% subadults)

*This image is copyright of its original author

Now in a place where there are no major competitors, a Leopard made more adult male sambar kills ( 3 adults vs 1 juvenile/subadult) :

*This image is copyright of its original author

^ I am not stating that a Leopard necessarily prefers adults, but the frequency of tackling adults (especially stags that can reach over 300 kg) seems to occur in places where they freely eat without any competitors usurping a large kill.'

This study here states that Leopards shifted more to larger ungulates (higher frequency of large kills without interruption) as soon Tigers were extirpated:

"The contribution of rodent in leopard’s diet was 44.2% in 1990, when the study area was largely occupied by tigers (Sankar & Johnsingh 2002), but after the local extermination of tiger from the study area (2007-08), Mondal et al. (2011) found no contribution of rodent in leopard’s diet. Later, after the re-introduction of tiger in the study area (in 2009), the contribution of rodent in leopard’s diet raised to 5.4% (Table III). In 1990, chital contributed maximum in tiger diet (57.2%) followed by sambar (18.1%) and in leopard diet, rodent contributed maximum (44.2%) followed by chital (20.2%), sambar (19.4%) and nilgai (7%). But after the local extermination of tiger from the study area, the diet of leopard changed significantly. The contribution of sambar and nilgai in leopard’s diet increased to 40.3% and 11.5% respectively in 2007-08, when there was no tiger in the study area (Mondal et al. 2011) (Table III). It was evident that, leopard shifted their diet from lesser prey species. to large ungulates after tiger extermination from Sariska (Sankar et al. 2009; Mondal et al. 2011)"


The study indicates that one reason Leopards prefer smaller prey is to gain enough nutrients without any thieving from lions:

"High consumption of langur occurred cause of arboreality and crypticity of leopards where they can consume its food without fear of coexisting competitor [5]. Although, it was reported as an alternative preferable prey of leopards in case of prey scarcity [51] which contrasted to our findings in presence of abundant potential prey species. Selection of peafowl or other supplementary small to smaller prey taxa seems reasonable for energy gain per hunting efforts, maximize the resource leopard has for survival when lost immediate hunting to lion [6]. "



Speaking of biomass, what is the difference between a Leopard killing a few 15-60 kg animals in one area vs. several more 15-60 kg animals in another area?

Wouldn't the leopard actually have more time to replenish its lost energy, and gain a better amount of meat in an area without other serious carnivores (as in a higher chance of losing a 15-60 kg animal to a lion/tiger/hyena).

They Savanna Leopard and the Central African/Persian/Sri Lankan Leopard can get enough of their mid-sized meals as long as they live in a healthy ecosystem:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Pckts Wrote:They don't, hence why you have Skulls that have scored higher with weights that match. How exactly have they produced larger individuals if their Skull size and weights have been matched or beaten?

If you mean they produce larger individuals more often, then yes, I agree.
But again, Africa is comprised of 1000s of Leopards, of course they'll have a much larger range since Africa encompasses the entire continent and has many different ecosystems that will affect prey preferences compared to the minimal # of Persian  Leopards. 

Not the best argument since Persian Leopards will still have larger individuals in proportion per population. For example, the average Swedish man is taller than the average Chinese man, but due to the huge population of China, there will be more 6+ foot men just by raw numbers. Reply