Primates are an important food resource for leopards (Panthera pardus) in Mahale, Tanzania

Abstract

Leopard diets in the Kasoje area of the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, were analysed by inspecting prey remains in 256 scats. This area is unique as leopard density is high despite a relatively low density of medium‐sized ungulates, regarded as the most preferred prey of leopards. At least eleven prey mammal species were confirmed in the scats. Small prey mammals up to 10 kg comprised 91.4% of the relative biomass consumed; the mean prey biomass in each scat was 7.6 kg. Blue duiker (31.2%) was the most dominant prey species, followed by the red colobus (29.2%), semi‐terrestrial Cercopithecinae (the vervet monkey and yellow baboon combined) (10.5%) and the red‐tailed monkey (9.9%). At the order level, the most consumed prey taxon was Primates (53.8%), followed by Cetartiodactyla (39.6%) and Rodentia (5.8%). Among primates, the blue monkey was the most preferred prey species, followed by the red colobus and semi‐terrestrial Cercopithecinae. High consumption of primates is a unique characteristic of the leopards in Mahale. This trend exemplifies the flexibility of leopards in their choices of prey, and such flexibility may be one of the underlying reasons for leopards exhibiting the broadest global distribution among all wild felid species.

Overlap of activity patterns between leopards and their potential prey species in Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania

“… d Relative biomass consumed, estimated from 256 leopard scats (Nakazawa, 2020). Suidae, semi‐terrestrial Cercopithecinae, and Herpestidae could not be identified to the species level.…”

“…Leopards may attack primates in roost trees at night. Leopards in Mahale consume blue duikers most, followed by red colobuses, semi‐terrestrial Cercopithecinae (the vervet monkey and the yellow baboon combined), and red‐tailed monkeys (Nakazawa, 2020). Blue duikers, yellow baboons, and red‐tailed monkeys were mostly inactive at night (Table 1).…”

“…For several reasons, the study area provides an interesting condition for understanding the overlap in activity patterns between leopards and their prey species. The unique characteristic of the diet of Mahale leopards is that the most consumed prey taxa at the order level was Primates (53.8%), followed by Cetartiodactyla (39.6%) (Nakazawa, 2020). The most dominant prey species is the blue duiker Philantomba monticola (31.2% of the total biomass consumed), followed by the ashy red colobus Piliocolobus tephrosceles (29.2%), semi‐terrestrial Cercopithecinae (the vervet monkey Chlorocebus pygerythrus and the yellow baboon Papio cynocephalus combined 10.5%), and the red‐tailed monkey Cercopithecus ascanius (9.9%) (Nakazawa, 2020).…”

“…The unique characteristic of the diet of Mahale leopards is that the most consumed prey taxa at the order level was Primates (53.8%), followed by Cetartiodactyla (39.6%) (Nakazawa, 2020). The most dominant prey species is the blue duiker Philantomba monticola (31.2% of the total biomass consumed), followed by the ashy red colobus Piliocolobus tephrosceles (29.2%), semi‐terrestrial Cercopithecinae (the vervet monkey Chlorocebus pygerythrus and the yellow baboon Papio cynocephalus combined 10.5%), and the red‐tailed monkey Cercopithecus ascanius (9.9%) (Nakazawa, 2020). The leopard density in Mahale is unknown, but it may not be lower than that at other sites in African forests, because of the presence of comparable, or even greater numbers of scats per day than at those sites (Nakazawa et al., 2013).…”

First report of a leopard (Panthera pardus)–bonobo (Pan paniscus) encounter at the LuiKotale study site, Democratic Republic of the Congo

“…Encounters between chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and leopards (Panthera pardus) have been observed at various field sites from West (Zuberbühler and Jenny 2002) to East Africa (Nishie 2018;Pierce 2009), and in some populations leopard predation was considered responsible for almost 40% of adult mortality cases (Boesch 1991). In addition to direct observations, indirect evidence of predation events comes from procedures such as scat or bone inspections (Eller et al 2020;Nakazawa 2020). In Taï (Côte d'Ivoire), chimpanzees have been shown to respond to predation pressure by decreasing party sizes while increasing the sex ratio of parties to include more males, although overall party size was larger than in East African chimpanzee sites with lower predation pressure (Boesch 1991).…”