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Leopard - Panthera pardus
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:52 PM (43,041 Views)
Kurtz
Kleptoparasite
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chui
Jun 14 2012, 06:28 AM
One reason for the big differences in the level of sexual dimorphism between samples may be due to different ways of classifying adults. Some sources will identify a leopard as young as 2 years old as adult while others may only consider animals above 4 years as adult. Since male big cats continue to grow much later into life than females the minimum age of the animals included in a sample will no doubt influence the level of dimorphism that sample yields. Moreover, in some of the older data from early naturalists and hunters it isn’t even specified that the animals are adult it simply says male and female so they could have included subadults.

This isn’t so much an issue with skull measurements since skulls first of all can be aged more accurately and also because the skulls of young adults are often differentiated from those of full adults. Furthermore skull measurements for leopards are available in greater abundance and cover much more of the species range than data on weights. Based on the available skull measurements there’s no doubt that leopards are highly dimorphic more so than any other feline species as far as I’m aware. Adult male skulls from most regions (East Africa, Southern Africa, India, Sri Lanka etc.) are around 20-25% larger than adult female skulls. Only African lions, the most dimorphic tiger subspecies (Siberian and Bengal), and Diard’s clouded leopards show similar dimorphism. However, the most extreme sexual dimorphism seems to be in the central African forest leopards where male skulls are over 30% larger than female skulls. I’ve also recently seen camera trap photos of several different adult leopards from the region and the difference between males and females is very striking, the males easily seem twice the weight based on build alone. The reason for the particularly extreme dimorphism in these forest leopards probably has to do with prey selection, with males specializing in tough prey like red river hogs while females prey on the much smaller duikers.

Here’s the only age specific morphological data for leopards I know of from this paper http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0035209. Here we can see that by the time males are full grown at 7 years and above they are nearly twice the weight of females. I would expect the same for leopards in other regions like East Africa, India, and Sri Lanka and an even greater difference for the leopards of the Congo Basin forest.

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So Chui what's your opinion about maximum weight attainable by a male leopard in south africa with a total empty stomach.
Considering that that these leopards were weighed with a filled stomach in a cage:
We have two males: one of 75 kilograms and other 79 kilograms.
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chui
Heterotrophic Organism
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Kurtz enough data has been published on South African leopards for us to get a pretty good idea of how big they are. Looking at data from all available sources, the average weight for adult males (4 years and up) in this region works out to be around 63kg (140lbs) with empty stomach. Based on this I would say the biggest males in South Africa are around 82kg (180lbs) using the 30% rule. This is a simple rule which generally seems to hold true, the biggest males in any population of big cats tend to be around 30% heavier than the mean for adult males in that population. This is perhaps best illustrated by Tony Almeida’s data on Pantanal jaguars. In his career, Almeida hunted 46 adult male jags in the Pantanal and was able to weigh 38 of them (immediately after death) giving an average of 102kg (not adjusted for stomach content). The heaviest he weighed was 119kg (empty stomach) but he didn’t weigh his biggest which he estimated at 125-130kg. He himself states in his book that 130kg is probably max attainable for a wild jaguar with empty stomach or 150kg if the jag is gorged.

Stomach content is obviously very important and the reported weight on its own may be pretty meaningless unless we have some idea of how much the cat had eaten. Conversely, if the animal is weighed some time after death when decomposition has set in the weight will obviously be reduced, this seems to be the case with some weights reported by early hunters. Other body measurements such as head, neck, and especially chest circumference are also good indicators of overall size and if provided along with weight can give us an idea of how accurate the recorded weight is. In the case of dead animals skull measurements are also very useful, head size has been shown to be a very good indicator of overall body mass for big cats.

In the case of the KZN data, the other body measurements (most importantly chest girth) suggest the weights are a little inflated. We do know that these researchers used baited cage traps to capture the leopards and also that body mass was not corrected for stomach content. According to Ted Bailey who used baited cage traps to capture his leopards in Kruger, the baits typically weighed around 5-10kg. So we can speculate that the male leopards on average had about 5kg of meat in their stomach when weighed when we factor in that not all leopards would have consumed the entire bait and also that the animal likely would have gotten rid of some of the meat consumed as waste by the time the researchers got to it.

As per the 75 and 79kg males from this study. I think the 79kg leopard from the 4-6 age class definitely would have been heavily gorged given that max recorded head, neck, and chest girth for that age class do not indicate such a high weight. On the other hand, I think the 75kg weight was probably taken from a big male with a more or less empty stomach because the max head, neck, and chest girth for that age class are perfectly consistent with that weight. In fact, the average weight of the 4-6 year old males especially seems too high relative to their average body measurements, the average weight of the 7+ year old males is more consistent with their corresponding body measurements. Maybe at a younger growing age males are more likely to gorge themselves. We do know that Tyson (M3) a very old male from this study was weighed once at 79kg and then later more accurately at 72kg. The second weight was obviously used for the average since the range for that age class is 69-75kg. And we can be sure that the 79kg male from the 4-6 age group was not Tyson since he was a mature established male estimated to be at least 10 years old when the study first began.

The girth of the stomach along with chest girth may be useful in assessing stomach content. If the girth of the stomach is greater than the chest girth that probably indicates a full stomach and if it is less than the chest girth it probably means a near empty stomach. The 69kg leopards in the following tables had abdominal girths smaller than their chest girths and thus probably had an empty or almost empty stomach. This should give us a good idea of what sort of measurements a genuine ~70kg male leopard will have. Note however, that in both these studies the body length was taken over curves whereas in the KZN study it was taken in a straight line, so length can’t be compared.

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Also, a relevant excerpt from Brian Bertram’s paper, ‘Weights and measures of lions”.

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Kurtz
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Thank you very much Chui!
You are always impeccable.
Trstan Dickerson told me that the biggest male he weighed was Frodo, 75 kilograms(not published) but i don' remmember the age before he vanished.(Phinda GR)
Jika was also very large, but i don't know how was
Edited by Kurtz, Sep 23 2012, 11:40 PM.
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Kurtz
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A FOCUS on killing method for warthog:
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Kurtz
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Reproductive success of female leopards Panthera pardus:
the importance of top-down processes
http://www.panthera.org/sites/default/files/Balme-et-al-2012-Repro-Success-Female-Leopards-%20MammRev-2012.pdf

"Our results suggest that the reproductive success of female leopards is regulated
primarily by top-down processes. This should be taken into account in management
decisions, particularly when managers are considering the implementation
of invasive activities such as legal trophy hunting."
Edited by Kurtz, Oct 29 2012, 06:45 AM.
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Kurtz
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We document the first reported instance of offspring
adoption in a wild leopard (Panthera pardus) population
and discuss the potential fitness benefits accrued
by the biological and foster mothers. A 15-year-old
female leopard adopted the 7-month-old male cub of
her 9-year-old daughter and successfully raised him
to independence. The behaviour was presumably
motivated by kin selection as no reciprocal support
was gained by the adoptive mother, she did not
benefit from additional parental experience, and it
was unlikely to be a case of reproductive error.
http://www.panthera.org/sites/default/files/BALME-A-case-of-offspring-adoption-in-leopards.pdf
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kiba
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LEOPARD PREDATION ON ADULT GORILLAS
This is an extract from the classic book "The Year of the Gorilla", by George B. Schaller.

"From Kisoro came a fascinating tale of a black leopard which had become a killer of gorillas, just as some lions prey on man. In February, 1961, the guide Reuben and his two trackers noted that some birds on the slopes of Mt. Muhavura were excited about something. On reaching the spot they heard noises such as leopards make from behind a bush, but they did not see the animal. Instead they found a duiker lying in it's blood. And a little farther away was a dead silverbacked gorilla with severe wounds in the neck and with a gash in the right groin that laid bare the intestines. Following the trail of flattened vegation uphill, Reuben found the spot where the male apparently had been attacked in his night nest by a leopard. Both rolled down the slope to the spot where the body was found. Three days after finding the male, Reuben discovered the decaying and partially eaten corpse of a female.
Later in the year, in July, Dr. D. Zimmerman, of New Mexico Western College, watched a black leopard as it stalked a group of four gorillas high on the slope of Mt. Muhavura. The leopard crept to within three hundred feet of the apes before they moved off. Then the leopard vanished. "
Edited by kiba, Oct 30 2012, 08:46 PM.
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pars
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Kurtz
Oct 21 2012, 06:16 AM
A FOCUS on killing method for warthog:


Does anybody know how Asiatic subspecies kill boar or Central African leopards kill forest hogs? in the same way? This is not a conventional way of killing for cats...he is focusing on the hearth of his prey...Am I right?
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Canidae
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Reproductive success of female leopards Panthera Pardus: the importance of top down processes

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http://www.panthera.org/sites/default/files/Balme-et-al-2012-Repro-Success-Female-Leopards-%20MammRev-2012.pdf
Whilst I only put small chunks on here, I really reccommend reading the whole paper, very interesting and lots of info on Leopard maturation and survival in early life.

I.M.O very interesting despite lions having a 'reputation' for it, Leopards are also heavily infanticidal.
Edited by Canidae, Dec 3 2012, 05:55 AM.
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Kurtz
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Has anyone information on the measures and the size of the leopard in Okavango Delta?
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chui
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Kurtz
Jan 4 2013, 01:54 AM
Has anyone information on the measures and the size of the leopard in Okavango Delta?
Okavango delta leopards are likely equal in size to those from Kruger which are probably the standard size for any healthy prey rich part of the African savanna. The closest area from which we have some decent data on size is the Matetsi game reserve in the north western corner of Zimbabwe, where 11 males averaged 59.7kg (range 52-71kg). The Matetsi GR is right at the border with Botswana and very close to the Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta so the leopards there should be of the same type as those in norther Botswana. It's possible that the Okavango swamps have more abundant prey and thus the leopards there are slightly bigger but probably not by much.

The Burnt Ebony male leopard featured in the documentary, "The Eye of the Leopard" was a particularly fine example of an Okavango leopard. He seemed as impressive as the finest Sabi Sands leopards like Camp Pan, Hlarulini, and Tyson.
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Kurtz
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chui
Jan 4 2013, 05:04 AM
Kurtz
Jan 4 2013, 01:54 AM
Has anyone information on the measures and the size of the leopard in Okavango Delta?
Okavango delta leopards are likely equal in size to those from Kruger which are probably the standard size for any healthy prey rich part of the African savanna. The closest area from which we have some decent data on size is the Matetsi game reserve in the north western corner of Zimbabwe, where 11 males averaged 59.7kg (range 52-71kg). The Matetsi GR is right at the border with Botswana and very close to the Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta so the leopards there should be of the same type as those in norther Botswana. It's possible that the Okavango swamps have more abundant prey and thus the leopards there are slightly bigger but probably not by much.

The Burnt Ebony male leopard featured in the documentary, "The Eye of the Leopard" was a particularly fine example of an Okavango leopard. He seemed as impressive as the finest Sabi Sands leopards like Camp Pan, Hlarulini, and Tyson.
Thank you Chui ;)
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Kurtz
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Altough jaguar is knew to kill prey by piercing the skull, even leopards can kill sometime in this way:

"An A. robustus skull was discovered in a South African cave with four holes in it. At first it was thought the holes were the result of a blow from a weapon, but later it was discovered they matched up perfectly with the teeth of a leopard also found in the cave. It appears that after the leopard killed the hominid it bit into its head piercing the skull with its teeth. Scientists speculate the leopard then dragged the early human into a tree where it could keep the kill away from scavengers such as hyenas. The skull later dropped from the tree and rolled into the cave"
http://factsanddetails.com/world.php?itemid=1485&catid=56
Edited by Kurtz, Jan 4 2013, 06:47 AM.
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Kurtz
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Again piercing on skull on hominids C.K. Brain:
"Between 1965 and 1983, Swartkrans cave was carefully reinvestigated by another South African paleoanthropologist, C. K. Brain, using more thorough field and laboratory techniques than had been used by Robert Broom a generation earlier. Many thousands of bone fragments, including the remains of 130 individual hominins, were recovered by Brain. These bones were from australopithecines and paranthropoids as well as early members of our genus, Homo. Because many of the bones had chewing marks and at least one of the skulls had peculiar depressions reminiscent of punctures made by the canine teeth of a leopard, Brain hypothesized that some of the Swartkrans hominins had been eaten by these big cats. The early hominin fossil-bearing strata in the cave also contained 195 stones that were from locations distant from the cave. Brain believed that 30 of them may have been used as tools or weapons. In any case, the presence of these stones suggests that not all of the early hominins in the cave were there as a result of being the victims of carnivores"


http://anthro.palomar.edu/hominid/australo_1.htm

If anyone have other info on piercing skull leopard killing method is welcome
Edited by Kurtz, Jan 9 2013, 11:31 PM.
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chui
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Kurtz
Jan 9 2013, 11:30 PM
Again piercing on skull on hominids C.K. Brain:
"Between 1965 and 1983, Swartkrans cave was carefully reinvestigated by another South African paleoanthropologist, C. K. Brain, using more thorough field and laboratory techniques than had been used by Robert Broom a generation earlier. Many thousands of bone fragments, including the remains of 130 individual hominins, were recovered by Brain. These bones were from australopithecines and paranthropoids as well as early members of our genus, Homo. Because many of the bones had chewing marks and at least one of the skulls had peculiar depressions reminiscent of punctures made by the canine teeth of a leopard, Brain hypothesized that some of the Swartkrans hominins had been eaten by these big cats. The early hominin fossil-bearing strata in the cave also contained 195 stones that were from locations distant from the cave. Brain believed that 30 of them may have been used as tools or weapons. In any case, the presence of these stones suggests that not all of the early hominins in the cave were there as a result of being the victims of carnivores"


http://anthro.palomar.edu/hominid/australo_1.htm

If anyone have other info on piercing skull leopard killing method is welcome
Leopards seem to often use a skull bite in intraspecific fights. The following excerpt provides two cases where leopards were killed with a skull bite and also notes that the heads of leopards often bear battle scars. PH Hamilton who documented intense fighting among male leopards in Tsavo also noted deep marks on the head from bites. And the postmortem of a male leopard from Kruger studied by Ted Bailey revealed a broken but healed zygomatic arch which may have resulted from a fight with another leopard. Some of the videos showing fights between male leopards also show bites to the skull.

From "East African Mammals" by Jonathan Kingdon 1988
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From "The leopard and cheetah in Kenya" by PH Hamilton 1981
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