Why is the Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) not treated as prey by the leopard (Panthera pardus)?

By Antoni V Milewski and Anthony J Mills · Originally published 20 July 2026

About this edition. This is Antoni Milewski’s post, republished with his permission. Only the photographs he chose are used. None of them is on iNaturalist under a Creative Commons licence, so all are hosted externally and are given as links. No images have been substituted. Read the original on iNaturalist.

CitedRelated post

Gemini

MY QUESTION

I challenge you to find a single well-authenticated piece of evidence that Panthera pardus has killed Pavo cristatus as food. Supply full references.

ANSWER FROM GEMINI

The evidence you’re looking for is well-established in peer-reviewed carnivore ecology literature through micro-histological scat analysis, which identifies prey species using ingested feathers, bones, and tissues.

A notable documented case comes from a study conducted in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, India. Researchers analyzed 90 confirmed leopard (Panthera pardus) scats to determine the species’ dietary composition.

The analysis identified Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) undigested remains in the scats, revealing that peafowl made up 6.3% of the leopard’s total dietary frequency of occurrence in the reserve (Mondal et al., 2012).

Reference

Mondal, K., Gupta, S., Bhattacharjee, S., Qureshi, Q., & Sankar, K. (2012). Prey selection, food habits and dietary overlap between leopard Panthera pardus (Mammalia: Carnivora) and re-introduced tiger Panthera tigris (Mammalia: Carnivora) in a semi-arid forest of Sariska Tiger Reserve, Western India. Italian Journal of Zoology, 79(4), 607–616.

CitedDOI

END OF TRANSCRIPT FROM AI

Posted on July 20, 2026 11:00 PM by
milewski