A leopard aged about two-and-half-years was found dead in Muthodi range of Bhadra tiger reserve on Monday morning. Forest officials said the death was the result of a tiger attack. This is a rare case because the two don’t usually engage in fights.
However, experts pointed out that it does happen rarely. Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) BK Singh pointed out that the postmortem reports revealed that the cause of the leopard’s death was due to a tiger attack.
“Such things are not common as leopards are swift and the tigers cannot reach them,” he said. “However, in this case, the leopard did have a fight with the tiger,” he added.
The leopard had bled profusely and was injured in the liver. There were pounce marks on the carcass and injuries on its back and abdomen.
The report revealed that the leopard was aged around two-and-half years and was a female. Though the tiger had not killed the leopard, there were signs of fight in the vicinity of the carcass.
Noted tiger scientist and director of Centre for Wildlife Studies, K Ullas Karanth, said, “There have been cases in the past where a lion or a tiger have killed a leopard. This happens due to inter-specific competition. Usually a tiger finds it hard to catch a leopard as the latter climbs trees and escape. But once it gets hold of a leopard, the tiger kills it. This is because the leopards are 3-4 times smaller than tigers. Similar killings have been spotted in Khana and Ranthambore. Once a Y radio-collared tigress had held a leopard on a tree for an entire night, and the next day the leopard was found dead.”
About 20 tigers and 40 leopards are estimated to habituate the Bhadra tiger reserve.
