During temperate climate cycles of the Pleistocene leopards enjoyed an even wider geographic range than they do today, living in Europe as well as Africa and Asia. Leopards colonized the island of Sumatra during the middle Pleistocene but became extinct there at the end of the Pleistocene, despite continuing to thrive elsewhere in Asia. Scientists used a statistical model to determine why leopards disappeared from Sumatra. They considered all potential competing carnivores and total prey biomass in their calculations. Leopards shared Sumatra with orangutans, monkeys, humans, elephants, deer, tapir, pigs, sun bears, tigers, clouded leopard, Asian golden cats, and dholes. Tigers are known to depress leopard populations in regions where the 2 species overlap; and dholes, a pack-hunting dog, compete for the same large prey species. Scientists expected the model to show competition with tigers and dholes caused the extinction of leopards on Sumatra. However, when they removed the influence of these 2 species from their model, leopards still became extinct. Leopards also became extinct when humans were removed from the simulation. Surprisingly, the statistical simulation suggests competition with clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi) and Asian golden cats (Pardofelis temminckii) caused the extinction of leopards on Sumatra.
Location of Sumatra.
Asian golden cats. This species along with clouded leopards outcompeted leopards on Sumatra following the end of the Pleistocene.
Clouded leopard.
The authors of this study propose ecological changes following the end of the Pleistocene greatly favored smaller forest cats over leopards. During Ice Ages Sumatra was a mix of savannah, woodland, and forest; but wetter climate fostered the spread of thick forest. Larger prey species became less common, so leopards were forced to compete with the smaller cats for smaller prey items. Both of the smaller species of cats reproduce faster than leopards and produce larger litter sizes. The extremely adaptable leopard was actually squeezed out of its ecological niche on Sumatra by 2 smaller felines.
Adult leopards weight between 80-200 pounds compared to a maximum of 57 pounds for clouded leopards and 35 pounds for Asian golden cats. The latter 2 species are efficient predators of small animals and need less food than leopards, giving them an advantage when available protein biomass declines.
Clouded leopards are 1 of the most primitive species of living cats and may be related to the evolutionary link between big and small cats. The Sunda clouded leopard is the species that lives on Sumatra. It diverged from the other species of clouded leopard ((Neofelis nebulosa) about 70,000 years ago. Clouded leopards from Borneo crossed a now submerged land bridge and colonized Sumatra following the Tuba volcanic eruption that wiped out much of Sumatra’s wildlife ~70,000 years BP. The Sunda clouded leopard was not recognized as a separate species until 2006.
Reference:
Volmer, R.; et. al.
“Did Panthera pardus (Linneaus 1758) become Extinct in Sumatra because of Competition for Prey? Modeling Interspecific Competition within the Late Pleistocene Carnivore Guild of the Paday Highlands, Sumatra”
Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, and Paleoecology 2018
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