Urban Leopards Can Save Lives By Eating Feral Dogs

Having a leopard as a neighbor has risks, but it may also reduce rabies risk.

Having a leopard in the neighborhood may seem a terrifying prospect, but the reality is that large predator may save your life.

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment suggests that leopards in Mumbai, the world’s sixth most-populated city, may save human lives by feeding on feral dogs. Feral dogs are a major health issue in India, where they are the leading cause of rabies deaths.

The study was led by researchers from the University of Queensland School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Sanjay Gandhi National Park, with a population of 35 leopards, has the densest population of these big cats in the world. The park is also in the middle of the burgeoning city of Mumbai, with more than 20 million people. Approximately 350,000 people, many of them in poverty, live all along the periphery of the small national park. Leopards can be seen strolling the city streets, and hunting in parking garages.

“While leopards are often in conflict with people over livestock like cattle and sheep and are frequently persecuted throughout their range, we show that these unique predators can also be beneficial to human society,” says Christopher O’Bryan, one of the joint lead authors on the study, and a PhD student at the University of Queensland.

That’s because 40 percent of the average leopard’s diet consists of feral or stray dogs, the researchers found. The density of feral dogs in and around the national park is an average of 17 dogs per square kilometer compared to other parts of Mumbai away from the park boundary that can have upwards of 680 dogs per square kilometer.

Feral dogs in Mumbai. Photo © Steve Winter/National Geographic

India’s rising feral dog population causes a major health crisis in the country. While exact population figures are difficult to verify, many sources estimate 30 million stray dogs live in India. Approximately 20,000 people per year die of rabies, most of them due to dog bites.

The study found that the small population of leopards “may consume about 1,500 dogs per year, saving around 1,000 bite incidents and 90 potential rabies cases.” The presence of leopards was also estimated to save $18,000 in dog management costs.

“Dog bites in these slums are very costly to people,” O’Bryan told me in a Skype interview. “There are the costs for medical treatments and hospitalization, as well as the costs associated with lost work time.”

O’Bryan is quick to point out that living with leopards has its own risks and costs. In 2017, there were seven leopard attacks in the area. “A lot of the news coverage focuses solely on the negatives of the leopards,” says O’Bryan. “The leopards can certainly be a health hazard. We are suggesting that they may also be a health benefit. We believe it’s important to assess both the costs and benefits associated with living in close proximity to predators.”

This study is a notable departure from usual studies on the benefits of large carnivores, which usually focus on predator effects in large national parks and protected areas. The classic example is research on the ecological benefits of wolves in Yellowstone National Park, which has shown that reintroducing these predators has had a host of cascading effects, including causing changes in elk behavior that leads to revegetation of native plants along streams.

Leopard in Mumbai. Photo © Steve Winter/National Geographic

That study, and others like it, focus on the benefits to the park’s ecosystem.  “This leopard study may be the first research that looks at a large predator’s effect on human health and well-being,” O’Bryan says.

Around the globe, expanding human populations encroach on predator habitat. This is often portrayed solely in terms of conflict. Many predators are forced to adapt to what is essentially a new ecosystem. Instead of preying on just native Indian mammal species, the urban leopards hunt feral dogs.

Leopards are widespread and adaptable, but they have disappeared from nearly 80 percent of their global historic distribution. They remain in conflict with people in much of their range. Understanding their benefits to people – and the benefits provided by other predator and scavenger species – may help shape a future where people and predators can better coexist.

“There are so many questions that arise from this study, and that’s a good thing,” says O’Bryan. “We see this as a call for more research on the costs and benefits of predators in human-dominated landscapes.”

The article Leopards provide public health benefits in Mumbai, India appears in the March 2018 edition of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment journal.

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35 comments

  1. NANCY DASHIELL says:

    Are the cats at risk from getting rabies, since they may eat rabid dogs?

    1. Lisa Feldkamp says:

      Hi Nancy, Chris O’Bryan reports that there are no instances of leopards contracting rabies from feral dogs in Mumbai the scientific literature. There are reports of leopards contracting rabies from dogs elsewhere in the world. Thank you for the question!

  2. Joy Gohl says:

    It sounds like the greater problem is lack of birth control for humans and their dogs.

    1. Marilyn Grossman says:

      Yes, how the feral dog population, got so out of hand, is not the responsibility of leopards to solve. India needs to find a humane way, to have these feral dogs spayed, neutered, and transferred to places where they are off the streets. The pictures of them foraging are disgusting. There are many humans, who would help, from all over the world…….Start doing something!!!!

  3. Sydney Bialek says:

    HI Matthew,

    Thank you for the article and the interesting information. Yet another example of how every species is an essential link in the balance between all of us, even when their environment changes (usually due to us) and they are in new settings.

    One question kept occurring to me while reading your article. How do the leopards NOT get rabies after eating a rabid dog?

    Thanks for your answer,

    Sydney

    1. Chris O'Bryan says:

      Hi Sydney,

      Although it has not been documented in Mumbai, leopards can contract rabies. There are some instances where leopards have had to be rehabilitated (and in some instances died) from rabies exposure elsewhere in the world.

      Regards,
      Chris O’Bryan

  4. LINDA TIPTON says:

    THAT IS THE MOST DISGUSTING ARTICLE I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME……………MUMBAI GOVT NEEDS TO SPAY/NEUTER TO STOP FERAL PUPPIES BEING BORN…………THERE ARE A MULTITUDE OF VETS FROM THE UNITED STATES THAT GO AND DO THIS ALL OVER THE WORLD………AND SUPPORT DOG SANCTUARIES AND GET FERAL DOGS OFF THE STREETS………..THIS IS 2018…………GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY………

    BUT TO HAVE THEM EATEN AND SCREAMING IN PAIN FROM BEING KILLED IS ABSOLUTELY
    INSANE AND INHUMANE…

    I AM SENDING THIS ARTICLE TO ONE OF THE ANIMAL SANCTUARIES I SUPPORT IN INDIA…..

    OMG

  5. Judith S. Bratnick says:

    I have lived in Hyderabad and walked the roads at night but have never seen leopards. But the farmer who hosted me apparently has seen leopards and warned me about them.

  6. Marilyn Grossman says:

    The feral dog population needs to be controlled by human sources, as well…..

  7. Nancy Charlton says:

    If feral dogs constitute 40% of the leopards’ diet, what is the other 60%? And what keeps the leopard population in check? Do the leopards also help control the rodent population? How about snakes?

    1. Chris O'Bryan says:

      Hi Nancy,

      Leopards feed on small mammals, primates, reptiles, herbivores, and even domestic buffalo. They are one of the most adaptable large carnivores in the world, consuming over 100 different prey types and living across 100 degrees of longitude.

      Best,
      Chris O’Bryan

  8. Josephine Eure says:

    What’s keeping a leopard from eating human beings?

  9. Jill kaptur says:

    This is horrific these poord ogs they need to have someone help them. This is not ok we people to vaccinate them and find them homes

  10. Bonnie Arbuckle says:

    I am ignorant to the full scope of information on rabies; so please enlighten me. Would the rabies-infected dogs therefore also infect the leopard? Thank you for your time.