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Leopard - Panthera pardus
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:52 PM (43,037 Views)
Canis Warrior
Canidae expert
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Program for reintroducation for Persian leopard in the Caucasus
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The Program for reintroduction of leopard population in the Caucasus is a unique project as long as the world practices has not seen any experience similar to such reinstatement of endangered animal species. Currently this leopard species (Panthera pardus ciscaucasica Satunin) is practically not encountered in the Northern Caucasus territories. Self-reintroduction of the Caucasian leopard population is unfeasible under existing situation. For this reason, the Program provides for reinstatement of a sustainable population of this leopard in captivity with subsequent reintroduction of the animals.

The Program pools efforts of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (RF Minprirody), Sochi National Park, Caucasian State Natural Biosphere Reserve, A. N. Severtsov Institute for Problems of Ecology and Evolution of the RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to restore and create viable population.

During implementation of the Program it is planned to undertake a set of the following activities:


identification of territories most suitable for reintroduction of the leopard and carrying out necessary biotechnical arrangements at the sites of release;
creating necessary conditions for breeding, adaptation and reintroduction of leopard;
forminga group of the natural population foundersin captivity (it is planned subsequently to create a free self-reproducing leopard population numbering about 30 animals);
arranging a system for permanent monitoring of created population;
educational and awareness-building activities aimed at local population to advocate the importance of activities pursued in the framework of the Program;
ensuring international cooperation around the leopard reintroduction problem.
Also, in the course of the Project activities it is planned to restore the population numbers of the hoofed mammals — the main feed of the leopard, a set of activities have been performed in order to enhance the forage resources for the hoofed animals, and the protection of the territory against poachers has been strengthened. These practical interventions will become an object lesson regarding what the 2014 Game may and should leave after they are finished. On top of that, it shall be possible to retain the diversity of unique nature of the Greater Sochi region for the present and the future generations.
http://www.sochi2014.com/en/games/strategy/legacy_games/materials/population/
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Full Throttle
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Apex Predator
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The effects of leopard predation on chimpanzee grouping patterns
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figantee
Heterotrophic Organism
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These leopards from the table above, are the forest or savannah?

impressive average weight of 72 kg!! Forest leopards are the savanna??

The leopards are larger forests?

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figantee
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figantee
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Ursus arctos
Autotrophic Organism

Gato Gordo
 
I am posting relevant extracts of a paper on predation on baboons by FEMALE leopards.

Credits go to Reddhole (Red Dog), as he emailed to me the pdf of the paper and agreed that I post it in the forum.


SUMMARY:

Those posters not willing to go through the details please read this summary.

The article reports predation on Chacma baboons by three female leopards in a private reserve in South Africa. Save for one sub-adult, all baboons were adult. The leopardesses did not select the baboons by sex, and most of the kills occurred at day time (not at night or dusk). Baboons were not specially selected nor avoided and comprised about 18% of the kills. Evidence suggest they were not preyed randomly, but that the leopardesses learned how to kill them.

One of the leopardesses was a 30 kg subadult and the other two weighed 41 and 43 kg (they were not mother-daughter pairs nor siblings). Even the 30 kg young leopardess killed 5 adult baboons.

MY INTERPRETATION.

The following is my interpretation of this evidence. Posters are free to disagree or to post their own interpretation.

This article is a "game changer" because it proves that successful predation on male baboons DOES NOT require top-notch male leopards and DOES NOT occur only at night or dusk (when the baboon's visibility is compromised). Here male baboons were taken by common leopardesses (including a sub-adult) and mostly during broad day light.

I dare say that we may interpolate this field evidence also in assessing the matches between baboons and smallish felines (small/young leopardesses, Cape leopards and clouded leopards). Yes, I can hear the word "ambush" written 1000 times, but ambushes are not easy-trivial kills. A successful ambush requires ability to kill rapidly, otherwise a small leopardess could ambush kill buffaloes or large predators. The fact that a 30 kg immature leopardess managed to ambush-kill 5 adult baboons, with 50% chance of them being male baboons of nearly her weight, means that felines on the 30 kg weight range are able to deliver a rapid efficient kill to these primates.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying that this article proves that 30 kg cats would demolish adult male primates, just that they have a good chance (better than previously thought) to kill them in the event of a one-one fight.

As a funny note: good old Gun Bullet used to say that a "small female leopard would shit in fear when facing a male baboon". Well, now we know that such leopardess can learn how to kill these primates under the right circumstances. Likely, Gun Bullet made this comment by looking TV documentaries when female leopards were badly intimidated when facing male baboons supported by whole baboon troops. This article shows that the outcome may be different when facing a single baboon.


EXTRACTS OF THE ARTICLE.

This is the title

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and abstract:

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NOTE: Baboons are not a favorite prey of leopards: they are dangerous prey

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NOTE: Here there is evidence of unusual predation by female leopards.

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NOTE: These were the three leopardesses. Notice that one of them ("A") is really a sub-adult just initiating independent life:

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NOTE: Among the results: pattern of predation on baboons is NOT different from predation on other species. Baboons formed a high proportion of kills (slightly less than implalas):

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NOTE: Evidence suggests that leopards select for easy prey, but there is also evidence that they learn to kill dangerous prey:

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NOTE: Baboons were taken mostly during the day. The pattern is analogous to that of non-baboon prey:

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NOTE: This is the distribution of kills per leopardess. The 30 kg subadult made less kills, but her baboon kills follow the same pattern as her non-baboon kills:

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NOTE: The article highlights the fact that even leopardess A (30 kg subadult) caught and killed 5 adult baboons.

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EXPLANATIONS:

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Open question: learning skills:

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221extra
 
Gato, you misunderstood some of my points, however I may have found something relevant & something that proves me wrong:

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http://www.welgevonden.org/leopard_research/Progressreport_final.pdf

Taaibos female is likely the sub adult in question in this study, given location Waterberg Mountains & private game reserve (Welgevonden).

Tho this must have been at a different time?...as most of the prey killed were sub adults, tho the sub adult Leopard did kill an adult male Baboon(tho this wasn't as specific to daylight or night time) How remarkable, as I really didn't expect such a thing to happen! ...as the same Leopardess was said to have killed 2 adult Kudu (greater to be exact)!
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Jinfengopteryx
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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Taipan
Jan 10 2012, 07:47 PM
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For the ones who want to read the PDF:
http://www.eva.mpg.de/primat/staff/boesch/pdf/behav_leopard_predation.pdf
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Sicilianu
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What seems to be a pseudo-melanistic leopard

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Taipan
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Baboons versus leopardess

October 05, 2013 •

We find a heavily bleeding baboon in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park. His troop is making loud alarm calls. It turned out that the baboon had attacked the cub of a female leopard and the leopard had subsequently wounded the baboon.

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Our guide was convinced that the leopard would return once she had brought her cub into safety. We waited for a little over an hour and indeed he was right.

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The baboons were in vain trying to protect their friend.

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In the meantime a group of Zambian school kids on school excursion had arrived at the scene. While I was capturing the expressions of the kids one of the troop baboons bit in the tail of the leopard. A shot I missed but my 13 year old daughter captured it on video.

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http://www.withinafrica.com/blog/2013/10/baboons-versus-leopard

^There's a video on the above website!
Edited by Taipan, Nov 11 2013, 04:38 PM.
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Taipan
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Leopards as Taphonomic Agents in Dolomitic Caves—Implications for Bone Accumulations in the Hominid-bearing Deposits of South Africa

Darryl J. de Ruiter* and Lee R. Berger
Journal of Archaeological Science (2000) 27, 665–684

Abstract
It has been hypothesised that leopards were significant contributors to the bone accumulations of the Plio-Pleistocene hominid-bearing caves of South Africa. Interpretations of leopard activity in these fossil caves were previously based upon reports of modern leopard behaviour in areas of southern Africa that were lacking in caves. In 1991 a leopard lair
with an accompanying bone accumulation was discovered in a dolomitic cave on the John Nash Nature Reserve, South Africa. All of the bones in this cave could be unambiguously attributed to the activity of one individual leopard over a 1-year period. The resulting bone assemblage indicates that, when available, leopards will preferentially utilise the
deep recesses of caves to the exclusion of trees when feeding, and that the size of prey leopards are capable of capturing, killing and transporting has previously been underestimated. The implications this may have for understanding the accumulation of fossils in the hominid-bearing caves of South Africa are that bones derived form leopards consuming prey in trees probably did not contribute significantly to the assemblages, and further that it is not necessary to invoke sabre-tooth cat involvement for the larger animals found in these assemblages. This modern cave probably represents a more appropriate model for the accumulation of bones in the fossil caves of the Sterkfontein Valley,and the assemblage is being continually monitored to view any and all taphonomic alterations that are occurring.


Kill Finds in Caves in different locations
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Examples
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Leopard killing capacity
Although reports indicate that occasionally they do take large prey, leopards are thought to concentrate mainly on animals smaller than their own body size (Pienaar, 1969). In an exhaustive study of predation patterns in Kruger National Park during the periods 1936–1946 and 1954–1966, Pienaar (1969) noted that leopards killed numerous large animals. Table 3 shows that most of these larger animals were represented by juvenile or infant individuals weighing much less than the adult form (during the period February 1966– January 1968). Two adult waterbok (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) of unknown sex were taken; adult male waterboks weigh as much as 270 kg, while adult females are somewhat smaller and lighter (Skinner and Smithers, 1990). An adult wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), if male, would have weighed 250 kg, or 180 kg if female. Two adult Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) taken also fall into this similar weight category, with males weighing 250 kg, and females 200 kg. The largest buffalo (Syncerus caffer) taken was a juvenile of unknown size.
In spite of the leopards preference for relatively smaller prey animals, for example the large majority of Impala taken in Kruger (Table 3), larger prey are not as rare as may be thought. The adult female eland found in WU/BA-001 may represent the largest documented leopard kill in southern Africa. This animal, when alive would have weighed between 350 and 450 kg (Skinner & Smithers, 1990). The ability of leopards to kill and cache prey many times their own body weight would imply that perhaps we need not invoke the activity of sabre-tooth cats in the accumulation of the assemblages of bones found in the hominid bearing caves of South Africa.





Found this earlier, which relates to the above:

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Kurtz
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Great find Taipan
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Kurtz
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Frodo (M34)
".....Another give away that
it was him was the fact that he
was snoring once immobilised
and he is the only leopard that
I’ve heard that snores when he
sleeps. He had grown a lot and at
20 months weighed 64kg
. After
the capture he returned to the bait
and finished it."
http://monash.edu/science/about/schools/biological-sciences/research/leopards/newsletters/2006/aug06.pdf
From Phinda G.R. Zululand South Africa
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Kurtz
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Tyson’s GPS cellular collar had been malfunctioning for some time and when the game drives located him near Four Feet
Open Areas, we took the opportunity to replace this. We also finally managed to get an accurate weight on this colossal
cat; an impressive 71kgs.

http://monash.edu/science/about/schools/biological-sciences/research/leopards/newsletters/2005/jan05.pdf

there are two leopards in this account one under average(Houdini) and another Tyson above average(one of the largest males).
Notice the pic of Tyson and Carl Walker sit on the ground:
http://carlwalker.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/4/tyson-houdini---two-male-leopards-and-an-unfair-battle
Edited by Kurtz, Nov 24 2013, 11:04 PM.
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Taipan
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Amur Leopard Cubs Spotted on Critter Cam in China

By Tia Ghose, Staff Writer | November 26, 2013 02:03pm ET

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An Amur leopard mama and cub trapped on camera in China

Two Amur leopard cubs were spotted on a wildlife camera in China, the first evidence that this critically endangered big cat is breeding in the region, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced today (Nov. 26).

The leopard cubs were seen with a female adult leopard at the Wangqing Nature Reserve in northeast China, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) away from the main Amur leopard population on the Russia-China border.

"This incredible find is important for two reasons. Firstly, it shows that our current efforts are paying off, but, secondly, it shows that China can no longer be considered peripheral to the fate of both wild Amur leopards and tigers," Joe Walston, the Wildlife Conservation Society's executive director for Asia Programs, said in a statement. "With a few key decisions by the government, China could become a major sanctuary for the species.”

Far Eastern or Amur leopards are the world's most endangered big cats, with between 30 and 50 individuals still roaming in the wild. Poaching and habitat loss have nearly wiped out the leopard in its native hunting grounds in China and Korea, but frigid temperatures and deep snow prevent the population from spreading further north. Now, the leopards cling to survival on a tiny sliver of habitat along the Russia-China border, from the Sea of Japan to China's Jilin Province.

The elusive cats were spotted earlier this week crossing the camera trap.

The camera traps that spotted the leopard cubs are just one element of a broad conservation effort to prevent the wild cats' extinction. Last year, similar camera traps spotted an Amur leopard in China for the first time.

Conservation groups are also working to improve law enforcement protections for the animals, as well as teaching local people how to keep their livestock safe from the predators to minimize conflicts. And in 2012, the Land of the Leopard National Park, a conservation area covering about 60 percent of the cat's habitat, was opened in Russia's Far East.



http://www.livescience.com/41535-amur-leopard-cubs-spotted-in-china.html
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Kurtz
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To put a conclusion in the ask of tiger figant on weight of leopards; for comparison with human a 50 kilograms male leopard no hunting trohy exageration with weights here:
"We have collared another beautiful leopard, this time in the Swartberg area. This male is the largest we have handled to date. Weighing approximately 50 kg he is an average 10cm taller and 20 cm longer than the largest male leopards collared to date. This cat was captured as part of the research effort, and mitigation measures to prevent its destruction as it is considered to catch livestock. We will follow this cat to determine how much stock it catches. We absorb the economic loss to the participating landowners through a compensation mechanism that negates the need to remove the leopard from the system, and the perilous state of these animals in the region has made this an urgent short term solution. This ‘buys’ us time to mitigate losses effectively over a long term by providing and testing methods to reduce losses. We have provided the farmer with collars to protect his sheep and will monitor their efficacy to contribute to the study. It is encouraging that more and more farmers are coming forward to participate in holistic and ecologically acceptable management practices. We look forward to seeing what this leopard gets up to over the next 18 months. We commend the farmer for saving this leopards life!"
http://www.landmarkfoundation.org.za/2/category/Research/1.html
Edited by Kurtz, Nov 30 2013, 05:14 AM.
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