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| Leopard - Panthera pardus | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:52 PM (43,038 Views) | |
| ManEater | Apr 13 2013, 03:49 AM Post #91 |
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Omnivore
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Thanks for you answer Chui, but what do we know of this skull of christiansen ? Do you know from what area it comes from? And do you know what is the biggest skull in hunting record? I reallyhope one day, there will be more studies on African equatorial forest leopard, like average weight, length etc. |
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| Kurtz | Apr 13 2013, 05:16 AM Post #92 |
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Kleptoparasite
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Chui why i suspect that even Hlaralini male leopard and Emsagwen are both in some private collection well it's only me..? Edited by Kurtz, Apr 13 2013, 05:17 AM.
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| Taipan | Apr 23 2013, 02:54 PM Post #93 |
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Rare Picture: Male Leopard Kills, Eats Cub Though relatively common, infanticide is rarely witnessed in nature. ![]() The male leopard Mmolai was recently photographed eating a cub in Botswana's Okavango Delta. Photograph courtesy Ryan Green ![]() The mother leopard Legadema carries away a second cub. Photograph courtesy Ryan Green. Christine Dell'Amore National Geographic News Published April 22, 2013 A photographer in Botswana has captured rare pictures of a male leopard (Panthera pardus) killing and eating a cub. In March in a remote part of the Okavango Delta (map), Ryan Green was tracking a well-known female leopard named Legadema, who had hid her weeks-old cubs in a large tree hollow. He noticed Legadema moving around nervously when a male new to the area emerged from her den with a mewling cub in its mouth. The interloper settled with the baby under the tree, playing with it and licking it in an "almost intimate, affectionate fashion," Green said in a statement. But "what appeared to be a gentle, tender encounter was in fact far more sinister": The male, later named Mmolai—killer in the national language Setswana—was slowly eating the cub, said Green, of Wilderness Safaris in Mombo. After the male leopard left, "not a trace of what had recently happened remained—not a drop of blood, a wisp of fur, nothing," said Green, who later photographed Legadema carrying away a second cub. As "horrifying" as it seems, infanticide is relatively common in nature. It often occurs when a male takes over a new territory and kills the young to which it's not related, noted Luke Hunter, president of the big-cat conservation group Panthera, which collaborates with National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative. Though well documented in African lions (Panthera leo), the practice is rarely photographed in big cats—making Green's series of pictures unique, Hunter said. Cub Killers Explained Hunter and colleagues have been studying leopard infanticide near South Africa's Kruger National Park for 13 years. In data recently submitted for publication, the team found that 45 of 280 dead leopard cubs the researchers recorded during that period were killed by male leopards. Males claiming new territory have a "sound evolutionary reason" to kill cubs—it brings the mothers back into heat, allowing the males to sire their own cubs. "They can't afford to be stepdads," Hunter said. It's unknown how the males know which cubs are their own—for instance, it's unlikely that the males recognize each baby by scent. More likely, he said, is that the males remember individual adult females and whether they've met before. A mother would certainly try to defend her young from a strange male, but if he successfully takes over her territory, her efforts would only postpone the eventual killing, Hunter said. However, Hunter emphasized that male leopards aren't always "murderous, rampaging, rogue animals." Territorial leopard males interact with females and cubs a lot, forming long-term bonds, he said. And once they have their own young, he said, they care for and defend the cubs against other males, making them "excellent fathers." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130423-leopards-cubs-africa-killing-animals-science/ |
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| Taipan | May 24 2013, 05:24 PM Post #94 |
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Very Rare Leopards Caught On Camera May 23, 2013 Jake Richardson ![]() Critically endangered Javan leopards have been caught on digital camera traps in West Java. If you have been following conservation news, you know that the Formosan Cloud Leopard was recently declared extinct. They were driven into extinction by human activities. So it is very important that the Javan leopards be protected or they may suffer the same fate. (Javan leopard caught on camera trap from CIFOR stock footage library on Vimeo.) Thirty cameras were placed in Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park in West Java, by researcher Age Kridalaksana, from the Center for International Forestry Research. For about a month the cameras recorded images of local wildlife. Most of the animals documented by the cameras were deer, civets and birds. There were also three Javan leopards. These leopards are about one hundred pounds and the height and length of an American mountain lion. There are probably less than 250 left in the wild, according to IUCN. Loss of habitat, poaching and loss of prey animals are contributing factors in their decline. All these factors are due to human activities. About 2,000 hectares of rainforest a year are being lost each year due to industrial activities such as mining and land clearing for palm oil plantations. If you want to protect these leopards and their habitat, make sure to stop using products containing palm oil. (Boycotting palm oil will likely also help orangutans.) Even within Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park 25% of the forested area was lost from illegal logging. The huge city of Jakarta with 20 million people is just several hours from the park. Surely, these wild animals deserve to have some natural habitat protected and kept undeveloped. The Center for International Forestry Research works to conserve natural forests and their wildlife. They also are study poor human communities and their relationship with natural habitats. Their work is some of the most important on Earth. What complements it the most is human population management. If the human population had not reached over seven billion, some of these very difficult situations would be less damaging. Read more at http://planetsave.com/2013/05/23/rare-leopards-caught-on-camera/#dTkvs2rZ4ZEluE0R.99 |
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| Taipan | May 25 2013, 02:37 PM Post #95 |
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Spotted: 1st Evidence of a Leopard Eating a Chimp Douglas Main, Staff Writer Date: 24 May 2013 Time: 03:11 PM ET Only rarely have people seen what happens when chimpanzees and leopards come into close quarters in the wilds of Africa. On these occasions, chimpanzees have made loud, fearful calls, or played the aggressor: In one case, chimps even surrounded a leopard den and killed a cub. But the big-brained primates don't always win: For the first time, scientists have found evidence of a leopard eating a chimpanzee. In Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park, researchers spent 41 days collecting African leopard scat from June to August 2012 (summer internship, anyone?). In one of the cat's "offerings," scientists found several chimpanzee patella and phalanges, corresponding to kneecaps and toe bones, respectively. DNA analysis showed that the bones came from an adult female chimp. The researchers can't be entirely certain that the leopard hunted down the chimp, because the cats occasionally eat dead animals; in other words, it's possible the chimp keeled over and then became leopard chow. However, the finding has led scientists to re-examine three mysterious wounds incurred by three different chimps in Mahale over the last few years. The wounds were deeper than thought to be possible from fights with other chimps, which is what scientists previously thought had happened. A 2009 study suggested that chimpanzees face only negligible pressure from predators. If it's indeed true that the leopard ate a live chimp, scientists may need to rethink this view and further examine how predation from leopards, or other animals, might have driven the chimpanzee's evolution, the researchers said. One study from 1993 found evidence of lions eating four chimpanzees, also in Mahale Mountains National Park. The park is one of the few places with ongoing research where the range of leopards and chimpanzees overlap, which helps explain why this was witnessed there. The new research was published online May 21 in the Journal of Human Evolution. http://www.livescience.com/34681-spotted-1st-evidence-of-a-leopard-eating-chimp.html |
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| figantee | Jun 2 2013, 11:09 AM Post #96 |
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Heterotrophic Organism
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| Kurtz | Jun 5 2013, 10:19 PM Post #97 |
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Kleptoparasite
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Archives / 2001, CONSERVATION MAGAZINE / Leopards roam the north of Namibia "Leopards roam the north of Namibia June 13th, 2012 Leopards occur in relatively large numbers on commercial and communal farmlands, where hundreds are killed annually for periodically taking livestock. To resolve the conflict between leopards and humans on farmlands and retain viable populations of these animals outside of conservation areas, the AfriCat Foundation is currently conducting a study of the home ranges and density of leopards on commercial farmlands in Namibia. Lise Hanssen, Director of the Foundation, filed the following report. Leopards are found throughout Namibia with the exception of the Skeleton Coast. They appear to be abundant on commercial and communal farmland, where they occasionally take livestock. For this reason they are actively persecuted through trapping, shooting and poisoning, and hundreds are killed annually. With the growth in human populations and changing land-use practices, it is becoming essential to resolve the conflict between leopards and humans in order to ensure the survival of these cats and other wildlife outside conservation areas. However, management strategies can only be formulated once the leopards are clearly understood. Although they are the most abundant of the large carnivores in Namibia, they are also the most secretive and often occur in remote areas where the terrain is rough. To date two attempts have been made to study this elusive animal, providing useful insight into leopard behaviour and ecology. Collaboration with the MET In 1998, Dr Philip (Flip) Stander of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) and the AfriCat Foundation collaborated for the first time to obtain baseline data on leopards found on commercial farmlands in Namibia. Combining resources such as vehicles, aircraft and radio telemetry equipment enabled both parties to conduct vital research at a fraction of the cost. Okonjima Farm, the headquarters of the AfriCat Foundation and situated near Otjiwarongo in northern Namibia, was chosen as the study site. The farm extends across the Omboroko mountain range, is characterised by red Etjo sandstone, and lies at an altitude of 1700 metres. All the leopards using a demarcated area of 100 km2 needed to be captured and radio-collared in order to determine the population density and the home range size of individuals. The leopards were baited using cow heads obtained from the abattoir. These were attached to trees on the main thoroughfares used by leopard and were checked daily for any sign of leopard activity. Initially our attempts appeared futile, but before long leopard spoor became visible at the baits. Trapping leopards takes a reasonable amount of skills, as long-standing persecution has made them extremely wary. Box traps (cage traps) were set up at the baiting areas, but had to be disguised as tunnels through the vegetation. Throughout the trapping exercise, animals such as honey badgers, caracals, warthogs and brown hyaenas were also captured. The brown hyaenas were either ear-tagged or radio collared, and the others promptly released. Our first four leopards Within four days we trapped and darted our first leopard. He was a young male of approximately two-and-a-half years old, weighing a hefty 61 kg. Blood samples were taken to check for viral antibodies and the radio collar was put on. We named him Pp1 (Panthera pardus the first). Within one month we had trapped Pp2, a five-year-old male, Pp3, a two-and-a-half-year-old lactating female and Pp4, a monstrous 69 kg, six-year-old male. Tracking was done by vehicle and on foot, and once every two weeks, Flip tracked with the Maule 5, the MET aircraft. Aerial tracking is a lot faster, although far costlier than ground tracking. We were surprised how easy the leopards were to locate. Pp3 was regularly found in the same area, but we assumed it was because she had a cub or cubs. We were tempted to investigate the area but desisted, in case she did not take too kindly to this. The first mortality Four months later a mortality signal was picked up from Pp4’s radio collar. A mortality signal is double the speed of the usual signal and is only emitted by the collar if the animal has not moved for eight hours or more. Vultures were seen from the aircraft and a GPS (Global Positioning System) location was taken. Following the GPS location on the ground led us to a cattle farm adjacent to the study area. The battered radio collar was found lying in the sand next to the remains of Pp4. All that was left were a few bones, his skull and some dry skin. The rest had been torn apart by jackals and vultures. There was no indication of the cause of the death. We called the farmer on whose land he had been found, learning that the farmer had not put out poison or shot any leopard on his land. We took Pp4’s skull and radio collar back to base, the latter for use on another leopard. Collaring eight more leopards Baiting and trapping resumed, and over the next three months we tracked and collared the remaining leopards. Pp5 was a young two-year-old male weighing only 40 kg. Pp6 and Pp7, both males, were soon trapped and collared. A set of female leopard spoor that did not belong to Pp3, the lactating female, appeared on the extreme south-west side of the study area, indicating another leopard yet to be caught. Our research revealed some remarkable information. The leopards clung to the mountains, with safety appearing to be an important factor in their home range sizes. Pp4 was an example of what could happen to a leopard if it ventured out of the mountains. Eighteen months after the start of the leopard study we trapped Pp12, the elusive female whose spoor had been seen in the extreme south-west of the study site. She was radio-collared and released back into her home range. Since no new leopard spoor were seen, we came to the conclusion that we had caught all the leopards in the study site. This was important to determine the true density of leopards in the area. No cubs were caught, so we assumed that Pp3’s cubs had not survived. Establishing the leopards’ precise location Tracking by road involves travelling to the high points in the study site and locating as many leopards as possible. The location must be confirmed by triangulation, meaning the located leopards had to be located from two additional areas. A GPS position and compass bearing of the direction of the signal are taken of the point from where we were locating. This information is plotted on a map, and where the three lines drawn from the triangulation points meet is the precise location of the leopard. Aerial tracking is far easier. We fly high and scan all the collar frequencies. When we hear a collar signal, we look onto it and decrease altitude. The antennae mounted on the struts of each wing are connected to a switch box inside the aircraft, where the signal is loudest. When they are equal, you know the leopard is either ahead or directly below the aircraft. The closer the aircraft to the leopard, the louder the signal. When the signal is at its loudest we take a GPS reading, which indicates the position of the leopard. This information is also plotted on a map. On only one occasion was a leopard seen from the air, when Pp4 was spotted running for cover in the open veld a week before he died. Because Etjo sandstone is bright red and orange in colour, leopards tend to blend in, making sightings exceptionally difficult. Pp1 was seen while tracking from the ground. On one occasion his signal was so close that we couldn’t establish a specific direction. By searching the area with binoculars, we found him lying on a ledge about 20 m up a koppie. He appeared relaxed and was half hidden behind a tree. The following day he was heard sawing (a typical sound made by leopards) about 300 m from his previous location. As he had not moved very far between locations, we assumed that he might have made a kill. A search of the area after he left revealed the remains of a warthog. Leopards are quick to sense when the area is safe, and Pp6 has become quite habituated. We have seen him from vehicles a number of times. When leopards are located in the same area for more than a day at a time, they have often made a kill close by. In our study the kill sites were so inaccessible that we were not always able to examine the area. Information on kills was further limited by our poor tracking skills and because we often only found kills by smelling the carcass or seeing drag marks on sandy roads. With the exception of the warthog carcass, all the kills we found were kudu calves between 8 and 12 months old. We were not able to obtain data on smaller prey species such as hare and steenbok, but assume that they were regularly taken. Identifying their home ranges The most interesting of all was home range information. Some leopard studies reveal a slight overlap or even exclusive home ranges. Our leopards appeared to be extremely tolerant of each other. Their home ranges vary between 6 000 ha and 30 000 ha. Although there was limited overlap between some of the study animals, others live almost on top of each other. Pp3’s area entirely encompasses Pp1’s, and both overlap extensively with Pp2. Pp6, the young male, overlapped with all leopards in the study site and has the largest home range of all. On one occasion he made a foray to the Omatako mountains about 30 km away, returning two days later. Although the majority of the leopards prefer the mountains, Pp6 and Pp7 were often located in the plains. Home ranges are determined by food availability and it appears that safely plays an important role in this particular study. Our study shows that Pp7 has moved into the area that Pp4 once occupied. This demonstrates that removal of leopard by farmers does not result in a leopard-free area. There is always a migrant looking for a suitable place to move into. After almost two years into the study, the leopards were becoming predictable. We knew more or less where they could be found, which saved time in tracking. However, in February 2000, Pp5 disappeared. We realised that one can never take a leopard’s behaviour for granted. We subsequently found out that he had been shot by a trophy hunter three farms away from the study site. Although trophy hunting is an accepted form of animal utilisation in Namibia, it was a shock to us, as the leopard population had been stable for so long. Long-term monitoring of longevity and mortality While we have finished the most intensive research, low-key monitoring of the radio-collared animals will continue. During the intensive period of almost two years, seven leopards – two females and five males – used the study site. This could change over time, because animal populations are dynamic. When, after three years, the battery life of the collar is reached, the animal will be retrapped and the collar replaced. This will give us long-term data on longevity and mortality. When animals die, trapping will resume for their replacements to be collared and monitored. Obtaining data such as density, home-range size, population structure and mortality contributes substantially to management guidelines for leopards in a largely farming community. In our opinion leopard studies in other areas of Namibia would paint an entirely different picture of these secretive cats. We hope that this study will contribute to a greater understanding of leopards on commercial farmlands and promote the conservation of this magnificent species for future generations. This article appeared in the 2001 edition of Conservation and the Environment in Namibia" http://travelnewsnamibia.com/archives/conservation-magazine/leopards/#.Ua8xL5xaeaQ Notice the male leopard of only 2,5 yrs old @ 61 kilograms :O impressive!! |
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| Kurtz | Jun 7 2013, 04:21 AM Post #98 |
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Kleptoparasite
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Nice female leopard |
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| figantee | Jun 14 2013, 01:34 AM Post #99 |
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Heterotrophic Organism
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leopardos de Maharashtra, Índia avg 63 kg, 1,32 m. comprimento para os machos, média 40 kg, 1,23 m de comprimento para as fêmeas, substancialmente idênticos em tamanho aos leopardos em kruger, Kzn, Zimbobwe: http://www.projectwaghoba.in/docs/morphometry_of_leopards_from_aharashtra_india.pdf According to the table only three males were weighed leopards Three in my opinion is too little to know the average weight of an animal. |
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| Kurtz | Jun 14 2013, 10:05 PM Post #100 |
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Kleptoparasite
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Indeed, but it's for to have an idea of an average leopard in a specific territory |
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| figantee | Jun 16 2013, 09:48 AM Post #101 |
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Heterotrophic Organism
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what would be the weight of the leopard that video I posted? |
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| chui | Jun 16 2013, 06:05 PM Post #102 |
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Heterotrophic Organism
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The weights of 2 additional adult males from Maharasthra are provided in Dr. Athreya's more recent paper. These individuals were all collared in 2009 or later and therefore would not have been included in the averages in the 2008 paper above which contains info on leopards captured between 2004 and 2006 (as outlined in that paper). Data from leopards captured between 2004 to 2006. Data from leopards captured during 2009 and 2010. From "Using GPS-GSM collars to understand leopard movement in a human dominated landscape in Ahmednagar district, western Maharashtra" 2010. ![]() From this we can see that five adult males from Maharasthra weighed 50, 62, 64, 66, and 75kg. The average weight being 63.4kg. Interestingly, an 83kg male has also been weighed in this region by Dr. Aniruddha Belsare, a colleague of Dr. Athreya. See this paper: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/204432805_Human-Leopard_Conflict_Management_Guidelines A poster on another forum (GauteGojira) contacted Dr. Belsare who confirmed the weight.
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| figantee | Jun 26 2013, 09:22 AM Post #103 |
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Heterotrophic Organism
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| Kurtz | Jun 28 2013, 09:30 PM Post #104 |
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Kleptoparasite
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"Dog used to bait man-eating leopard A top Indian forestry official is facing animal cruelty charges after he used a pet dog as bait to help trap a man-eating leopard." "His actions were criticised by the campaign group People for Animals which said it amounted to cruelty because the animals used for bait are often killed by leopards who rip their through the bars with such force that their heads are often snapped." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9612039/Dog-used-to-bait-man-eating-leopard.html |
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| Kurtz | Jun 29 2013, 07:06 PM Post #105 |
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Kleptoparasite
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061116-russia-leopard.html November 16, 2006—In the remote forests of southeastern Russia, scientists have captured what's believed to be the rarest big cat on Earth: a Far Eastern leopard. The animal is so scarce that only 30 are thought to survive in the wild. The team, led by biologists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, caught the 100-pound (45-kilogram) male in a snare last week while studying Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Chinese border (See Russia map). The chance capture gave biologists a priceless opportunity to study the elusive feline, and Melody Roelke (below), a specialist in big-cat genetics with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, wasn't shy about getting a closer look. She and other team members conducted a thorough series of tests on the leopard, from studying its teeth to collecting sperm samples, before releasing the animal back into the wild. Among the scientists' main concerns is whether Far Eastern leopards, also known as Amur leopards, can continue to sustain their tiny, isolated population, or whether disease and inbreeding may eventually wipe out the cats. "This capture represents a milestone in our cooperative efforts to save the Far Eastern leopard and Siberian tiger from extinction," said Dale Miquelle, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Russia Program, in a statement. "With the information gained from these animals, and others to come, we will be in a much better position to determine appropriate conservation actions." —Blake de Pastino
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