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Biggest Leopard Sub-species?
Topic Started: May 17 2012, 08:41 PM (41,457 Views)
Enigma
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The Persian leopard (occasionally called the Caspian leopard) is known to be the largest according to most sources. Sri Lankan leopards wouldn't be the largest because they have a lot of interspecific conflict due to a higher density of leopards occurring on the island. What's distinct about the Sri Lankan leopard is the fact that for once they are the top cat in their habitat (no lions or tigers in Sri Lanka).
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Kurtz
May 25 2012, 05:54 AM
Kashane male leopard son of Hlaralini male leopard(Hlaralini was the leopard that almost killed hyena in account "Sweet revenge" of Guy Balme)
Could you tell just from his appearance?

Also, have much studies been done of Indian Leopards / their sizes?
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Enigma
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From what I've read, the Indian leopards are smaller than their African counterparts.
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ManEater
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There is very , very few datas and studys on jungle cat in general : equatorial leopard , jaguar , amazonian puma etc
The best studied leopard is the african plain leopard , we don't really know the size and weight of the jungle counterpart .
Indian leopard seems to be less big from what we know, but balaji can demonstrate the contrary , chui said there was big leopards too in india where there is no tiger .
Edited by ManEater, May 26 2012, 12:47 AM.
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Enigma
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There is plenty of research being done on jaguars. Indian leopards aren't "equatorial leopards". Indian leopards are far, far from the equator.
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ManEater
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Enigma
May 26 2012, 12:22 AM
There is plenty of research being done on jaguars. Indian leopards aren't "equatorial leopards". Indian leopards are far, far from the equator.
I was refering to west african leopard when i was using "equatorial" , that's why i put a "etc" at the end for the other like indian jungle leopard .
Jaguar is the more mysterious of big cat , and the most understudied .
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Enigma
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The most understudied big cat is the snow leopard. Some of the leopard subspecies that are understudied are the Arabian leopard, Balochistan leopard, Javan leopard, and North Chinese leopard. If you ask me, we know more about the jungle leopards than we do about some of these leopard subspecies.

Jaguars are not as well studied as lions, tigers, or African leopards but there is plenty of research on them.
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ManEater
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There is a gap between very few study and almost no study at all like the javan leopard and other you mention , don't means that forest leopard is well studied.
Like i said , there is few datas , documentaries etc on jaguars , of course if you compare it to the arabian leopard , yes there are plentys of studies .


ps : In french language , there is 4 big cat : "les grands félins" , snow leopards are not considered like a big cat (clouded leopard too) , i don't know the subtleties of the english language .
Edited by ManEater, May 26 2012, 12:46 AM.
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Enigma
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ManEater
May 26 2012, 12:45 AM
There is a gap between very few study and almost no study at all like the javan leopard and other you mention , don't means that forest leopard is well studied.
Like i said , there is few datas , documentaries etc on jaguars , of course if you compare it to the arabian leopard , yes there are plentys of studies .


ps : In french language , there is 4 big cat : "les grands félins" , snow leopards are not considered like a big cat (clouded leopard too) , i don't know the subtleties of the english language .
It's the same in English. We call the tiger, lion, jaguar, and leopard the "big cats" or the "great cats".
I wasn't implying that the leopard was a "great cat", but that it is a large sized cat that is severely understudied. However, there are many scientists that do include the snow leopard among the genus panthera, thus making it a "big cat". The clouded leopard is the basis of the genus panthera. Of course neither the clouded leopard nor the snow leopard can roar.
Edited by Enigma, May 26 2012, 12:58 AM.
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ManEater
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Ok Enigma, let's stay in the theme of the topic, and tell me what subspecie(s) do you think is(are) the biggest , or could be the biggest .
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Enigma
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Well I think it's well established that the Persian leopard is the largest leopard subspecies. Even with a decimated population they manage to produce some very big males, frequently over 65 kg. I'd imagine that when their populations were much bigger and prey was more plentiful the sizes of males would've likely been around 70-80 kg on average. But their habitat has been decimated over the last 50 years due to an explosion in human population in the region, deforestation, and poaching of big males (this does a lot of damage to the gene pool).

I personally believe that the Persian leopard would likely eclipse the cougar in size if the conditions in its environment were ideal.
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pars
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As I said in my previous post there is a recent study in Iran and in all over the country 19 males have been weighed. They were between 44 - 91. We have a 91 and a 86 kg male from North and another sub adult 64 kg and head and body lenght is 115 cm. When we compare with other subspecies measurement a 115 cm leopard is in 35- 50 kg range. It shows us that this subspecies is realy robust.

The problem with these measurements of Persian is that, it includes the southern specimen which are smaller...we do not know the average of Northern specimen. It should be still around 75 kg. We may still have cougars in some regions of Canada with a similar average. I know that the average of measurements in Alberta was 71 kg. But Northern Persians and Central Africans may eclipse the cougar in size.

There was a measurement of a few species (4 - 5) in a region of India and the average was 65 but I could not find it on internet, though I am sure that I found it on internet two years ago...
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Kurtz
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Canidae
May 26 2012, 12:01 AM
Kurtz
May 25 2012, 05:54 AM
Kashane male leopard son of Hlaralini male leopard(Hlaralini was the leopard that almost killed hyena in account "Sweet revenge" of Guy Balme)
Could you tell just from his appearance?

Also, have much studies been done of Indian Leopards / their sizes?
Marc1977 told me that kashane is the son of Hlaralini male.
The eyes are identical.
Surely marc could put info btwn Mala Mala and Idube GR he obtained


As for India -Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 41(2): 331–333, 2010
Copyright 2010 by American Association of Zoo Veterinarians-:
"Even for a leopard weighing 75 kg (the
maximum we have encountered), the induction
dose would be 0.66 mg/kg xylazine and 2 mg/kg
ketamine".

http://www.projectwaghoba.in/docs/belsare_and_athreya_2010.pdf


ANother India:
"On November 2005, a 75 kg male with chip 00-0658-D1AA
escaped from a cage in the crowded town of Sangamner
(Ahmednagar Division), after two weeks in captivity. No
attacks on people after his escape."
http://ncra.tifr.res.in/~sambit/leopard_conflict_management.pdf
UMAN - LEOPARD CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES

Another in India most detailed:

Weight of leopards
Age Sex Weight (kg) ± std n min max
Prime adult Male 63 ± 13 3 50 - 75

http://www.projectwaghoba.in/docs/morphometry_of_leopards_from_aharashtra_india.pdf

;)
Edited by Kurtz, May 26 2012, 07:26 AM.
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pars
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Thank you Kurtz...the last one is that I could not find...average is 63 kg for 3 adult males (50 - 75 kg) ...the average lenght is 132 cm.
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ImperialDino
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Based off of observation Persian Leopards don't seem that big to me, they just have more FUR then other leopard speices (notice the head size and narrow necks)

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On the other hand SRI LANKA leopards look very very JAGUAR-LIKE.
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Edited by ImperialDino, May 26 2012, 02:06 PM.
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