Leopards are reckoned by one and all as truly adaptable creatures, flourishing in diverse habitats such as deserts to the metropolitan suburbs of Mumbai or even a foray into Chandigarh’s posh Sector 5 during the Covid-induced curfew of March 2020. But in the public mind, due to a predominance of popular wildlife films, stereotypical notions of leopard behaviour persist. Fact is, the big cat calibrates its behavioural responses to the specific context. So, questions arise. Do leopards always need to take their kills up the trees? Are they such purists that they only feed on prey taken down live, i.e. lustfully drinking the proverbial hot blood surging from the eye-bursting quarry’s throat, and harbour an aristocratic disdain for scavenging?
Extensive field research conducted in the Kalesar National Park (KNP), Yamunanagar, using the path-breaking technology of camera traps illuminates behavioural diversities. Here, researchers did not find leopards up in the trees with their kills. This was so because KNP lacks tigers and hyenas. Tigers hound and kill leopards in territorial fights necessitating the latter’s refuge in trees with kills. Hyenas are formidable scavengers that can force leopards to either retreat from their kills on ground or share it (as shown by field studies in the Ranthambore National Park by Debashish Panda where a leopard shared a livestock kill on ground with a hyena). Thus, leopards take their kills up trees where such threats exist, vividly displayed in African films of leopards high up in trees and menacing lions circling below. Or, a leopard with a kill up a tree and cocking a snook at salivating hyenas below.
At the KNP, researcher Janam Jai Sehgal photographed a leopard with a Sambar kill. The leopard had left it on the ground and covered it with leaves to hide it from other scavengers. “The Sambar was a male adult (200-250 kg). It might be difficult for the leopard to take it onto the tree. As there is no competition from tigers at KNP, leopards exist in high densities there. Leopards also hide kills from other leopards. But an interesting aspect at KNP was that we photographed two leopards present at a kill by one of the two. Due to a high prey base at KNP, there is less competition among leopards for prey so they might be more disposed to sharing among themselves,” Sehgal told this writer.
{{/usCountry}}At the KNP, researcher Janam Jai Sehgal photographed a leopard with a Sambar kill. The leopard had left it on the ground and covered it with leaves to hide it from other scavengers. “The Sambar was a male adult (200-250 kg). It might be difficult for the leopard to take it onto the tree. As there is no competition from tigers at KNP, leopards exist in high densities there. Leopards also hide kills from other leopards. But an interesting aspect at KNP was that we photographed two leopards present at a kill by one of the two. Due to a high prey base at KNP, there is less competition among leopards for prey so they might be more disposed to sharing among themselves,” Sehgal told this writer.
{{/usCountry}}It takes effort for a leopard to take a kill up the tree. Trees limit the size of the prey that a leopard can lug up. A kill up the tree can get exposed to higher temperatures and attract more carrion flies that spoil the leopard’s meal. But hiding a kill in a shady spot on the ground slows down carcass putrefaction. So, if a leopard can avoid it — as facilitated by the KNP habitat — the big cat saves itself a lot of trouble by sticking to ground zero.
Sehgal’s camera traps revealed that leopards are opportunistic scavengers, willing to gobble anything that comes easy and ensures survival. Sambars and nilgais, which suffered road kills upon colliding with heavy vehicles in the KNP area, were set upon by crows, vultures, wild boars and red jungle fowl. Camera traps showed a road kill Sambar scavenged upon and shared by two leopards.
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