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Maheshwari, A.
Food Habits and Prey Abundance of Leopard (_Panthera pardus fusca_) in Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary
2006  Full Book

Leopard (_Panthera pardus) _is the most widely distributed of all the wild cats in the world (Nowell and Jackson 1996). Fossil evidence, some as old as 1.5 to 2.0 million years (Hemmer 1976, Brain 1981) suggests leopards were once more widely distributed than today. The geographical distribution of leopard extends throughout Africa, central Asia, south-east Asia and north Amur valley in Russia. Leopard is found through the Indian sub-continent with the exception of deserts, the sundarbans mangroves, and densely settled areas (Khan 1986, Jhonsingh _et al. _1991). It is the most common of the big cats, Myres (1976) recommended that it remain in Appendix 1 of CITES because of its extensive hunting had depressed populations in several parts of Africa. In India it figures in the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Anonymous). Leopard is placed under Least Concern category of 2002 IUCN Red List of threatened animals. The present study was undertaken to investigate the following three objectives:1)Prey Abundance; 2) Food and Feeding Habits; 3) Kill Monitering; 4) Prey Abundance. The Line Transect method (Emberhardt 1968, Burnham _et al_. 1980, Buckland _et al. _1993) was used to estimate the density of wild prey species of leopard (_Panthera pardus fusca_). This method has been effectively used to determine the ungulate densities in the same dry deciduous forest of Gir (Khan 1987).

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