First Evidence of Leopards Eating Chimpanzees in East Africa [VIDEO]

Anything left behind tells a story from where it came. In the case leopard droppings in sub-Saharan Africa, the story told is that the cats apparently eat chimpanzees.

The evidence is reportedly the first documented instance of a leopard eating a chimpanzee in East Africa.

But to find the proof, it required a lot of dirty work. According to Discovery News, researchers in Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park spent 41 days collecting African leopard feces and analyzing the contents. The researchers found several knee bones and parts of toes in the droppings. A DNA analysis confirmed the bone fragments came from an adult female chimp.

Leopards have long been thought to prey on chimpanzees, and several pieces of research on the topic have been completed. A 1991 study concluded that interactions between the two species always aggressive and claimed to present the first evidence of predations of chimpanzees by leopards.

The recent study further reinforces the initial research.

Research of chimpanzees has shown the primates wielding sticks and hurling rocks to defend against leopards has verified that chimpanzees will defend themselves against the cats. In one field test, a troop of chimpanzees decapitated the leopard model that was used to provoke them.

Leopards are not the only feline threat to the chimps. A 1993 study also in Malale Mountains National Park found evidence of lions eating chimpanzees, Discovery News reported.

The latest research on leopards preying on chimpanzees was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.