Leopard (dog, pet, wild)

[Calvert Hall '62]

Lions murder leopards to eliminate a competitor for available food. The leopard's favorite meal, warthog, is often able to outfight a leopard and escape. Even when a leopard secures a meal, it seems that hyenas arrive to snatch it away, unless there's a tree nearby for the leopard to climb with its meal. The leopard's troubles are really bad if it has children. She must constantly move them to new locations, act as decoy, etc. for their protection, because the whole waterhole wants to kill them: male leopards, hyenas, jackals, wild dogs ..... Always felt a little sorry for this magnificent beast.

[BlackShoe]

The leopard is perhaps my favorite animal of all. This powerful predator does just fine, it is extremely adaptable and can thrive in places, due to being only one third the size, that it's larger cousins, lions and tigers, cannot. All animals, not just leopards, are at risk of having their young taken by another predator. Lions in Africa and tigers and bears in Asia are the biggest threat to adult leopards. Packs of wild dogs or dholes will gang up on and try to kill leopards if they can, while a single wild dog or dhole is itself vulnerable to be taken by a leopard. While spotted hyenas do steal many kills from leopards, not always. There have been a few observations of decent sized tom leopards successfully standing their ground and defending a kill against one, and even in a few cases, two, hyenas. The smaller, far less powerful and aggressive females usually give way.

An adult wart hog, especially a boar, is a tough target, and not often targeted by leopards, prefering to try for a piglet. Small and mid sized antelope are common prey, with impala often a favorite prey item. An adult zebra or larger antelope such as oryx, roans, sables, or elands, are pretty much out of a leopard's range, unless it is a large tom.

[Calvert Hall '62]

Originally Posted by BlackShoe

All animals, not just leopards, are at risk of having their young taken by another predator.

Relatively speaking, I would argue that some younguns are snug & secure:

The baby orca surrounded by its matriline.

The baby African elephant in a herd with its adoring mama and doting aunties, sisters, and cousins.

The baby polar bear with its mother who would defend that baby to the death and can usually repel the larger rogue male who has murderous intentions.

[BlackShoe]

Originally Posted by Calvert Hall '62

Relatively speaking, I would argue that some younguns are snug & secure:

The baby orca surrounded by its matriline.

The baby African elephant in a herd with its adoring mama and doting aunties, sisters, and cousins.

The baby polar bear with its mother who would defend that baby to the death and can usually repel the larger rogue male who has murderous intentions.

The very young babies, still under very close watch by it's mother, is usually safe unless it becomes separated, or worse, orphaned, in which case it is doomed. The older calves, however, those that are semi independent, are vulnerable to lion predation. The Jouberts captured on film lions killing young elephants in Botswana some years ago. Very graphic, not for the sensitive.