A new study had discovered that it's the man's best friend that tops the most devoured animals list for leopards in India.
The research led by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which looked at scat samples for leopards in India's Ahmednagar's district in Maharashtra, found that 87 percent of their diet was made up of domestic animals. Domestic dog dominated as the most common prey item at 39 percent and domestic cats were second at 15 percent.
Seventeen percent of the leopard's diet consisted of assorted wild animals including rodents, monkeys, and mongoose, and birds.
Livestock, despite being more abundant, made up a relatively small portion of the leopard's diet. Domestic goats, for example, are seven times more common than dogs in this landscape, yet only make up 11 percent of leopard's prey. The author's said this was because goats were less accessible and often brought into pens at night, while dogs were largely allowed to wander freely. Cows, sheep, and pigs were also eaten, but collectively made up less than 20 percent of leopard's food. Most domestic cattle in this region were too large to be preyed on by leopards.
The author's of the study say that the selection of domestic dogs as prey means that the economic impact of predation by leopards on valuable livestock is lower than expected. Thus, human-leopard "conflict" was more likely to be related to people's fears of leopards foraging in the proximity of their houses and the sentimental value of dogs as pets.
Study co-author Ullas Karanth, WCS Director for Science-Asia, said that during the past two-to-three decades, legal regulation of leopard hunting, increased conservation awareness, and the rising numbers of feral dogs as prey have all led to an increase in leopard numbers outside of nature reserves in agricultural landscapes. While this was good news for conservation and a tribute to the social tolerance of Indian people, it also poses major challenges of managing conflict that occasionally breaks out.