AHMEDNAGAR, India, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- In rural India, much of the landscape is dominated by agriculture. Cattle and goats gather along the roads and graze the countryside. With so much livestock free for the taking, you might expect the leopards that roam the Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra to pick off a calf or a kid for their midnight meal.
But a new study by researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society show that while India's leopards aren't above the occasional filet or shoulder of pork, goat or mutton, they prefer dog tartar. Cattle are apparently too large a target to take down. Scientists gained a new understanding of the leopard's diet by wandering around rural India picking up pieces of cat poop.