persephone Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-08/how-leopards-in-a-city-park-save-lives-in-mumbai/9528624 rabies, an inordinate number of stray dogs and humans, and how leopards are perhaps assisting in the reduction of rabies deaths Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuralPug Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Isn't it unusual for a predator to hunt and eat another predator? I know that coyotes will take and eat small dogs but I thought that was because when they live near cities there is not a great deal of their natural prey about. Reading just the headlines I thought that the leopards must be just killing the dogs but the article definitely says that dogs make up 40% of their diet, which is a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 33 minutes ago, RuralPug said: Isn't it unusual for a predator to hunt and eat another predator? I know that coyotes will take and eat small dogs but I thought that was because when they live near cities there is not a great deal of their natural prey about. Reading just the headlines I thought that the leopards must be just killing the dogs but the article definitely says that dogs make up 40% of their diet, which is a lot. My guess is that the 'balance' has been well & truly tipped dogs would be breeding uncontrolled , eating lord knows what , plus being cannibalistic . Those leopards are doing everyone a favour , I guess ( until they get rabies ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 1 hour ago, RuralPug said: Isn't it unusual for a predator to hunt and eat another predator? I know that coyotes will take and eat small dogs but I thought that was because when they live near cities there is not a great deal of their natural prey about. I think it's pretty common for top predators to prey on mid-level predators. A fox, coyote, or dog can have 8+ kits/pups a year. Historically, Eurasia and North America would be overrun with various canids if something wasn't killing them. If hungry, predators generally eat what they kill. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_PL_ Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 I think when you're an apex predator you can eat whatever and whoever you like. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumCorner Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 In Kenya I was told that dog is favourite food for leopard, added to they have a hatred of dogs so will seek them to attack. One family I was staying with as a house-guest had their dog taken by a leopard, it crashed through the insect-screen of an open widow, grabbed the dog from the room and carried it straight back out. This was not a farm, a game warden's house in a National Park. (Duck is favourite food for foxes, which is why I am awake at stupid hour because fox is tonight prowling around my geese. Not that a fox won't grab a small dog if the opportunity presents). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asal Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 interesting your observation of foxes, my neighbours chihuahua guarded their chooks from the neighbourhood foxes for over 14 years and they were terrified of her. She has only died of old age at 17 and very much missed by the chooks as well as us. Now the chooks can no long be let out to forage as the foxes are waiting, here they hunt by day and night they are so brazen. we have some very big foxes, one is as tall as a cattledog, their den in the creek has 7 entrances there are so many of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 The leopard V dog thing puts a whole new perspective on the whole dog V cat idea !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_PL_ Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 (edited) I've always wondered, if an animal eats an animal with rabies, do they catch it? Edited March 11, 2018 by Powerlegs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 2 hours ago, asal said: we have some very big foxes, one is as tall as a cattledog, their den in the creek has 7 entrances there are so many of them. Npw that is scary !!! yes//here comes the narrative ;) many years ago , when Mum & i were much fitter , and we had dozens of guinea fowl , they were spokked by an owl one night . being free range, sleeping in trees, they just took off ..and landed in a paddock a hundred metres or so from our house. Mum & I grabbed torches , bags into which we would place birds..and off we went . Searching for grey/dark crouching birds , on a clay, shrubby background by torchlight ..not terrific odds to start with . THEN ..... the foxes came . they could find the guineas , and we listened , as one after another, our guineas were picked off . At one stage , we stood together, and shone our torches around us in a circle ... y'know the old westerns /scary movies ? Firelight , scared humans, wolf/coyote eyes in a circle? YEP. I shall never forget it .We were totally safe of course ...but every primal instinct was saying otherwise !!! LOL Anyhow ..yes, we lost around half of the guineas who flew off, rescued some, and a few found their way home safely ... A night to remember , Now, did I tell you the one about the fox & the road ? ........ jus'jokin' :) 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 @Powerlegs I was wondering that ( and have been too chicken to look it up , cos I'd hate for those beautiful leopards to all get rabies ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumCorner Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 1 hour ago, persephone said: ....safe of course ...but every primal instinct was saying otherwise .... I so relate. Self talk "Don't be silly, nothing here to worry about" can be powerless against primordial fear of the night and the wild. For anyone who has never had a panic attack, being alone in the middle of a forty acre paddock, freezing cold and howling wind, 2 o'clock in the morning pitch dark, and the torch battery fails can trigger it. That's fun. Total sympathy with the Babes in the Wood, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumCorner Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 On rabies, back in the day I worked in quite a few rabies countries. Never heard of a cat catching it. Monkeys are carriers, and baboons and other monkeys are the main food of leopards, so they have been eating rabies carriers from pre-history - maybe they have an immunity, or maybe it can only transmit through saliva from a bite into the bloodstream. (Yet horses can catch a closely related bat-transmitted virus from just access to bat-poo under fruit trees and transmit it to people). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asal Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) 9 hours ago, PossumCorner said: On rabies, back in the day I worked in quite a few rabies countries. Never heard of a cat catching it. Monkeys are carriers, and baboons and other monkeys are the main food of leopards, so they have been eating rabies carriers from pre-history - maybe they have an immunity, or maybe it can only transmit through saliva from a bite into the bloodstream. (Yet horses can catch a closely related bat-transmitted virus from just access to bat-poo under fruit trees and transmit it to people). A actually they are still guessing the mode of transport of hendra from the bats Edited March 12, 2018 by asal 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumCorner Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 21 minutes ago, asal said: ... they are still guessing the mode of transport Okay. When Eques folded I pretty much lost track of what was said/thought about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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