Diet & Hunting

Leopards are versatile, opportunistic hunters. In the open savanna, they are most successful when hunting between sunset and sunrise, though they may hunt during the day, especially in forest areas when they have the advantage of being hidden by dense brush or cloudy skies. The leopard stalks its prey silently and at the last minute pounces on its prey and strangles its throat with a quick bite. Leopards often hide their kills in dense vegetation or take them up trees, and are capable of carrying animals up to three times their own weight this way. The leopard is the only big cat known to carry its prey up into a tree.

Leopards have relatively flexible dietary needs and generally feed on a greater diversity of prey compared to other members of the Panthera species. Although mid-sized animals are preferred, the leopard will eat anything from dung beetles to 900 kg (1,984 lb) male giant elands. Their diet consists mostly of ungulates and monkeys, but rodents, reptiles, amphibians, insects, birds, and fish are also eaten. One survey of nearly 30 research papers conducted by Hayward et al. (2006) found preferred prey weights of 10 to 40 kg (22–88 lb), with 25 kg (55 lb) most preferred. Along with impala and chital, a preference for bushbuck and duiker was found. Other prey selection factors include a preference for prey in small herds, in dense habitat, and those that afford the predator a low risk of injury.

In Africa, mid-sized antelopes provide a majority of the leopard's prey, especially impala and Thomson's gazelles. In Asia, the leopard preys on deer such as chital sand muntjacs, as well as various Asian antelopes and ibex. Prey preference estimates in southern India showed that the most favored prey of the leopard was the Chital. A study at the Wolong Reserve in China revealed how adaptable the leopard's hunting behaviour is: over the course of seven years, the vegetative cover receded, and the animals opportunistically shifted from primarily consuming tufted deer to instead pursuing bamboo rats and other smaller prey.