Research overview: leopard dietary breadth across Africa and Asia

A survey of the leopard's exceptionally broad diet, the widest of any large felid, which lets it occupy more habitats than any other big cat. Leopards eat dozens to over a hundred prey species across their range, from small rodents, birds and reptiles to medium antelope and the young of large ungulates, with primates and livestock locally important. This overview synthesizes how leopard diet varies with prey community, competitor presence and human land use, and how dietary flexibility underpins the species' resilience in human-dominated landscapes where larger cats vanish. It connects to prey-preference analyses showing a preferred prey-weight window despite great breadth, and considers how diet shapes leopard density, conflict and conservation across two continents.