Chimp & See Talk

Kani (LeoMaleAV02) - New male leopard at AV

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    This big male leopard ACP000f45e was recently found by @puddock

    He (the leopard 😃) was so nice as to show us different views of his beautiful body. Here's a collage which should help to identify him later on. May he get a TempID?

    He seems to be quite big with a long, thin bent up tail and a big belly, maybe from recently feeding. The blotches are quite far apart with lot of bright fur in between. A rather distinctive spot is a bunny-like on his left hindleg and a bright spot on his left hindleg.

    enter image description here

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Thanks a lot for this new prospective male! He is now #LeoMaleAV02.

    As it seems that we have now (probably) two big males at Aged Violet, we have to be very sure with further ID assignments! And it will be interesting to see whether their territories overlap, i.e. that we might see them at the same camera.

    Posted

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    Yes I wondered too that two big males are sharing the same territory. I think I've read somewhere about the size of one site like Aged-Violet is about 1 square-km. Maybe one of the scientifists can confirm that? Or you @AnLand?

    Or could it be that this one just "visited" the territory of his neighbour and went away again? Would be awesome to find more of him!

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    OK, about the territories and the size of the research site: 1sqkm is, of course, too small for one site! I post here an illustration from the field protocol. Usually, a site has a grid of 20 cells of a size of 1 km x 1 km each. But depending on the chimpanzee activity radius, determined by the field team before camera setup, it can be bigger than that (maybe also smaller). Cameras are placed in each cell, every second cell, or preferably placed according to chimp activity centers.

    enter image description here

    For the leopard territories, we expect the following: leopards are territorial, but we can expect a certain overlap. Territories of leopards of different sex can completely overlap. For instance, a female’s territory can be completely or partly included in a male’s (his is always bigger). For the same sex, we rather do not expect that, but only a small overlap of approx. 20%.

    Leopards patrol their territory. We might be able to see (and determine?) two leopards patrolling and marking their territory on the same animal trail. That’s rather not “visiting”, but checking the own territory from either side. But these are the assumptions. We need to check them here and pay attention to recognized individuals.

    Posted

  • puddock by puddock

    He's a beautiful boy! Would we expect these forest-dwelling leopards to exhibit different behaviour compared to the ones that live on more open terrain? Similar to the elephants and hippos which look and behave differently?

    Posted

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator in response to AnLand's comment.

    Thanks a lot for that explanation @AnLand. Obviously what stayed in my brain was just that 1x1 km cell 😕 It makes much more sense like shown above!

    I found this excerpt about territorial sizes in Wiki:
    Territorial sizes vary geographically; they can be as small as 33–38 square kilometres (13–15 sq mi) for males and 14–16 square kilometres (5.4–6.2 sq mi) for females in forests and rocky terrain (such as in the Serengeti or Kruger National Park),[76][77] or as large as 451 square kilometres (174 sq mi) for males and 188 square kilometres (73 sq mi) for females in northeastern Namibia[78] (they might be even larger in deserts and montane areas).[12]

    Since the sites are mostly in forests I assume that the territories are closer to the smaller numbers given but still I think we're lucky when we can identify 2 or even more male leopards at one site. I'm not sure if the sites are close together or wide apart. If the first we might even see the same leopard at two different sites.

    Interesting question @puddock!

    Posted

  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Hi all

    Our grids are all done now so I can tell you that they range in size from 10km2 to 90km2 (I am pretty sure that was our biggest one off the top of my head) most are around 30-35 km2 and they got bigger as the project continued and we got greedier and more demanding of our site managers 😉

    Here is an older paper from Tai forest on leopard HRs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1996.tb05296.x/abstract
    "The home range of the male was 86 km2, those of the two females were 29 km2 and 22 km2, respectively. One female's home range was fully included within that of the male. Home ranges of neighbouring residents were not exclusive."

    seems there are certainly behavioural differences in forest leopards 😃 eg: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229882994_Hunting_behavior_in_West_African_forest_leopards
    " forest leopards differ in various ways from the savannah populations. Forest leopards are diurnal and crepuscular hunters who follow the activity pattern of their prey species. They exhibit seasonal differences in activity patterns, and they develop highly individualized prey preferences. These findings challenge the widespread notion of leopards as opportunistic nocturnal predators."

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Thanks, Mimi! There is also a short text specificallly about forest leopards on the Chimp&See blog: http://chimpandsee.blogspot.de/2017/01/leopards-in-forest-new-chimp-mini.html

    Posted

  • puddock by puddock

    Oo - thanks Mimi and Anja - will go and check out these links...

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    I will look into this later myself, but after a first glance, I think ACP000fypm and ACP000fypn might be LeoMaleAV02. What do you think? I'll make better images during the weekend. Video found by @Snorticus.

    enter image description here

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  • squish5 by squish5

    enter image description here
    Very possible, has my vote anyway. Here is the left hind leg (red) and right hind leg (yellow) inserts from ACP000f45e

    Posted

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    That's a match! And that's what I call teamwork 😃

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Great! Thanks to both of you! You are much faster than me with the image proofs. (And I am very happy about that.) 😃

    Just to be sure: we also all agree that it is not Jelani?

    Posted

  • squish5 by squish5

    enter image description here
    Thanks, here is Jelani, missing the 5 dice shape on the left. has more of a paw shape. image from Known Leopards discussion.

    Posted

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    Agree, it's not Jelani 😃

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    OK, then we first should accept this match and name this "other" big guy. I think, we promised @zoogirl1 the next naming. We still do, right?

    So, @zoogirl1, what should be his name? Please check the master list of names for all names already taken.

    Posted

  • zoogirl1 by zoogirl1

    thinking......

    Posted

  • zoogirl1 by zoogirl1

    KANI pronounced - KAH-nee means - strength, energy from - Kenya, Tanzania (Kiswahili)

    How about that?

    Posted

  • squish5 by squish5 in response to zoogirl1's comment.

    Awesome name @zoogirl

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Great name! Thanks @zoogirl1. So we have now two big males at Aged Violet and they are named Kani and Jelani. That's a bit funny and sounds as if they are brothers. 😃 But we would not expect to see them (now as adults) together.

    We could do nursery rhymes with this:

    Kani and Jelani,

    never side by side,

    leopards in the forest.

    strolling through the night.

    Brought to you by my morning coffee. 😉

    Great teamwork! Thank you all!

    Posted

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    LOl! Anja the Poet! very nice - I wonder what coffee you favour? 😃

    Love the name, @zoogirl - very "leopardly" 😉

    Posted

  • zoogirl1 by zoogirl1

    Trying for the "leopardy". The language is to blame for the rhyme. Similar meanings.

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    In ACP000ftjn, I think we see Kani again.

    enter image description here

    enter image description here

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  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    ACP000fxat / ACP000fxau / ACP000fxav / ACP000fxax - found by @Snorticus - might be Kani, too.

    enter image description here

    enter image description here

    Here the comparison from ACP000f45e

    enter image description here

    Posted

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    I agree on Kani for this leopard. I can clearly see the same bunny-shape on his left hindleg.

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator in response to Boleyn's comment.

    Do you agree on both sequences are just the last one. I am not totally sure with your comment.

    ACP000fxat / ACP000fxau / ACP000fxav / ACP000fxax

    and ACP000ftjn ???

    Posted

  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    Hi Anja, I've just realized now that there was another entry with ACP000ftjn but yes, also there I can see the bunny very clearly!

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator in response to Boleyn's comment.

    Thank you!

    Posted

  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    This is such a wonderful thread! Going through it and following your elegant detective work has been the best work break I've taken in a while 😃 thanks everyone!

    Posted