IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
| Odden, M.; Wegge, P. | |
| Kill rates and food consumption of leopards in Bardia National Park, Nepal | |
| 2009 Acta Theriologica (54): 23-30 | |
This is the first study presenting data on kill rates and food consumption among Asian leopards _Panthera pardus_ Linnaeus, 1758. In Bardia National Park, Nepal, we found leopard kills by searching within areas with clusters of locations from radio collared leopards (2 males and 1 female with 2 cubs aged 4-9 months). We used two tracking schemes, 24-h intensive radio-tracking and daily monitoring, and we defined food consumption as the product of average prey live weight and proportion consumed. The three leopards consumed 89.2 kg of meat from five chital Axis axis, one domestic dog and two birds during 19 days of 24-h intensive tracking, rendering an average (ñ SE) daily food intake of 4.7 ñ 0.3 kg per capita. Twenty-five prey items (14 chital, one muntjac Muntiacus muntjak, four primates and six birds) were found during 180 days of daily monitoring of the female. All edible biomass was consumed in all kills, except for three chital, and the rate of kill consumption was positively related to the age of her cubs. The average daily food consumption of the female was 4.0 ñ 0.3 kg/day, the kill rate (days/kill) including all prey categories was 5.6 ñ 0.4 days, and the kill rate of ungulates was 10.6 ñ 0.7 days. Our food consumption estimates are higher than reported from arid African environments. We suggest that the high food consumption rate in our study is a consequence of a release from time-energy constraints due to high prey abundance. |
|
 |
PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here |
(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |