Leopards prefer domestic dogs as prey

Leopards in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in North Mumbai have taken a liking to domestic dogs, which has emerged as their favourite prey.

An analysis of 117 scats, collected between May 2008 and March 2009, by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has indicated that almost half of the prey detected in the droppings was domestic dog.

A combination of dog, rodents and wild boar formed almost 90 per cent of the prey, the study said. The findings correlated with the results of the human-leopard interaction survey which indicated that dog/livestock lifting is common in areas surrounding the park.

"Leopards are well-known to be opportunistic and due to abundance of domestic dogs around SGNP, the big cats seems to be largely surviving on small prey as a total of 81 per cent of hairs were identified as belonging to species weighing less than 20kg," BNHS Project-Head (City Forest) Krishna Tiwari told PTI here.

This is contradictory to the common belief by ecologists that leopards tend to consume prey in the weight range of 20 to 70 kg, he said.

Covering a area of almost 103 sq km, SNGP, which spans over Thane district and Mumbai suburban division, is home to 24 leopards, as per the 2008 census report.

According to Tiwari, the trend poses no danger to the survival of the leopards as the consumption of dogs and other domestic livestock fulfills all its nutritional requirement.

"As long as the prey it consumes is disease free, the leopard has nothing to fear," he said. "Last year, a leopard, that was surviving on a diet of only dogs was caught at Kolshet in Thane district.

It was found weighing a good 65-70 kg, which is an indication of a completely healthy animal," he said. However, Tiwari said, the trend may bring the leopard in direct conflicts with the humans.

The natural habitat for the leopard is disappearing rapidly due to encroachment from slums and residential complexes. This encroachment has greatly reduced the original territory of big cats, encouraging a higher incidences of human-leopard conflict when the animals stray from their home ranges in search of food, he said.

According to Tiwari, a further study on prey abundance and density within SGNP is required to identify whether there is a lack of natural prey for the leopards in the national park or if they are choosing dogs over natural prey on the basis of convenience or abundance.

"Only then will it be possible to understand whether the leopards are heavily depending on dogs as a functional response to reduced wild ungulate prey density or because it is a more convenient option to prey on domestic canines," he said.