I.

Introduction

Leopard, large, agile member of the cat family known for its spotted fur, climbing skills, and secretive habits. A superbly designed predator with a long, well-muscled body, powerful limbs, and broad paws, the leopard combines the power and strength of the big cats with the grace and versatility of the smaller cats. Leopards are highly adaptable and are found over much of Africa and southern Asia, sometimes living undetected close to human settlements. The name leopard comes from the Greek words for lion (leo) and panther (pardos). “Panther” and “leopard” are names for the same kind of animal, but “panther” is most often used for a leopard born with black fur (black panther).

II.

RANGE AND HABITAT

The leopard has the largest geographic range of any cat. It is found throughout most of Africa south of the Sahara and in parts of North Africa. Its range includes parts of the Middle East and extends east into India, southeastern Asia, and parts of northern Asia. Surprisingly, in Indonesia leopards are found on Java but there are no records of them on the larger islands of Sumatra and Borneo, which are closer to mainland Asia. Leopards also lived in Europe until the end of the last ice age around 11,000 years ago.

Leopards can cope with almost all imaginable living conditions and habitats. They thrive in places as diverse as savannas and grasslands, open woodlands and rain forests, as well as in Africa’s Kalahari Desert and the freezing Amur region of Russia. Leopards are so stealthy, bold, and versatile that they have survived in areas where other large carnivores have been exterminated. They are able to live within sight and sound of people more effectively than any other big cat. Leopards live in the suburbs of Nairobi and other African cities, and often patrol Indian villages at night in search of unwary dogs.

III.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

A typical male leopard weighs about 60 kg (132 lb) and stands 65 cm (25 in) at the shoulder. Females are about a third smaller, weighing approximately 40 kg (88 lb) and measuring 50 cm (20 in) at the shoulder. Like jaguars, pumas, and tigers, leopards vary greatly in size according to where they live. In general, leopards living in open areas are larger than those living in forests.

Two hundred years ago, it was thought that leopards and panthers were different species of cats. However, by the 20th century, scientists had established that the leopard and the panther were anatomically indistinguishable from one another, and the name panther was officially dropped—all members of the species are now correctly known as leopards. Confusingly, some people continue to refer to black leopards as “black panthers” as if they were a separate species.

The leopard’s coat and markings are similar to those of the jaguar, and both cats can be individually identified by their spot patterns and coat characteristics. The base color of the leopard’s coat varies from golden to pale tawny yellow. Black spots cover the legs, flanks and head, and rosettes, made up of circular groups of spots, cover the rest of the body. On the throat, a series of spots sometimes join to form a solid black necklace. From the chin to the tail, the underparts are white. Leopards living in forests are generally darker than those that live in arid open areas. The length and thickness of the leopard’s fur also vary with the region and climate it lives in. For instance, leopards in cold regions such as Siberia and northern Asia have long, thick fur.

All-black (melanistic) leopards are common in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia. Black leopards are rare in Africa, but are occasionally seen in Ethiopia and in the highlands of Kenya. Both black and spotted leopards can be born in the same litter—the black form is inherited as an autosomal recessive gene to the spotted form.

Leopards are classified in the big cat genus Panthera, in which most scientists also include lions, tigers, jaguars, and snow leopards. These big cats share many similarities in their appearances and behaviors. It is thought that they all evolved from a common ancestor about 3 million to 4 million years ago. Because the split into separate species is relatively recent and the genetic differences are relatively small, genetic and molecular studies can offer contradictory information about how closely the particular species are related to each other. Researchers have found evidence showing that either jaguars or lions are the closest relatives of leopards. A study published in 2005 that compared a range of genetic information indicated that leopards and snow leopards are the most closely related of the big cats. The clouded leopard, despite its name, is not a close relative of the true leopard. The more distantly related cheetah is sometimes called the hunting leopard.

Physically, true leopards do not have any remarkable specializations. They do not have extra powerful canines like the jaguar or adaptations for great speed like the cheetah. They are perfectly “generalized” big cats, well suited for making the most of a wide range of different types of prey.

Like many of the smaller cats and unlike most of the other big cats, leopards are superb climbers, capable of scaling even the largest trees. The mark of a truly accomplished climber is the ability to descend a tree headfirst and the leopard is one of only a handful of cats that can do this. Despite the persistent folklore that they don’t like to get wet, leopards are also quite at home in the water, a trait found in jaguars and some populations of tigers. Leopards enjoy playing in the water and swim well.

Captive leopards have lived to be more than 20 years old. It is not known exactly how long leopards live in the wild but one female that was followed in a long-term study lived to 16 years of age.

IV.

BEHAVIOR

Leopards are solitary. Other than a female and her young, or a mating pair, they seldom associate with one another. Adult male leopards typically occupy large areas that overlap the ranges of one or more females. Female ranges are usually smaller than those of males.

Individuals maintain their rights to these areas primarily by scent marking. Scent marks, in the form of urine or feces, are deposited along commonly used travel routes, especially at road junctions or trail intersections. For a nocturnal solitary animal like the leopard, scent has many advantages as a signaling device in that it is persistent and not diminished by darkness.

Leopards also communicate with one another via visual markings; they scratch trees and make scrape marks in the dirt by raking with their hind feet. They also vocalize—their well-known “sawing” call is said to sound like “a piece of wood being sawn across with short sharp double strokes.” The sawing call can carry for 2 to 3 km (1 to 2 mi).

Leopards are usually nocturnal, but they may be more active during the day in places where there are no large competing predators such as lions or tigers. They are also more diurnal in areas where their prey is active during the day.

Primarily visual hunters, leopards find prey from vantage points like trees and rock piles or by lying in wait in places where animals come to feed or drink. They are masters of concealment, and use every available rock, bush, or depression in the ground to get as close as possible to their prey. The final charge is short, usually less than 10 m (33 ft). After a strike with the forepaw, leopards kill larger prey with a bite to the throat and smaller animals with a bite on the back of the neck.

Leopards in Africa often take their kills into trees, but Asian leopards seldom do so. Dense vegetation may allow leopards in Asia to more easily hide their kills.

In general, leopards eat whatever they can catch, and in most places they live on medium-sized mammals. However, leopards kill a much wider range of prey than most other large cats—the diet of African leopards, for example, includes more than 90 documented species.

Medium-sized antelope, such as gazelles and reedbucks, and deer make up most of the leopard’s diet in the wild. Leopards also feed on smaller animals such as rodents, porcupines, rabbits, hares, pangolins, monkeys, baboons, and even birds. They have also been seen eating reptiles and amphibians, as well as grass. In places where leopards live close to people, they often kill livestock such as goats, sheep, and pigs. Leopards also will prey on domestic dogs and wild members of the dog family—jackals, foxes, African hunting dogs, and dholes. It is not known why leopards have an apparent taste for dogs.

V.

REPRODUCTION

Female leopards are usually about two-and-a-half years old when they give birth to their first litter. Males are capable of mating at about 24 months but because older, stronger males do most of the breeding, young males probably have to wait until they are three or four years old before they have an opportunity to sire a litter.

Leopards breed at any time of the year. After a gestation period of 96 days, the female finds a secure birth den in a cave, thicket, or rock pile. The usual litter size is two but on rare occasions as many as six cubs may be born.

Baby leopards are born with their eyes closed. Their short fur is faintly spotted and they weigh 430 to 1000 g (15 to 35 oz). The first few days after the cubs are born the mother spends all her time at the den, resting, nursing, and looking after her young. However, she has to hunt, and to do so she must leave her cubs. This is the time when her choice of a safe den site becomes crucial because the defenseless cubs are very vulnerable to predators. Fifty percent of young leopards die before they are a year old. Radio-tracking studies have shown that female leopards have to travel long distances from the birth den to find food and often have to leave their cubs unattended for long periods of time.

Cubs begin to travel with their mother when they are about two or three months old. At this time they weigh 3 to 4 kg (6 to 8 lb) and are beginning to eat meat. They practice killing grasshoppers and lizards but usually do not begin to kill larger prey until their permanent canine teeth appear at about seven months of age.

By 12 to 18 months, young leopards are independent of their mother, but the timing varies. Males usually become independent earlier and some mother-daughter relationships are extended because daughters often settle near or next door to their mother’s range. This form of philopatry (the tendency of an individual to return to, or stay in, its home area or another adopted locality) creates clusters of closely related female leopards. Somewhat similar clusters are found among female lions, who form groups of closely related members called prides. Female leopards living near one another may be as closely related as lionesses in a pride.

VI.

CONSERVATION STATUS

The leopard is in the odd position of being critically endangered in some parts of its range and considered a pest in other areas. In the 1970s, all leopards were listed as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and international trade in leopards was prohibited. However, since 1983 several African countries have been allowed to export a limited number of leopards shot by trophy hunters.

Leopards clearly have the ability to survive near humans. However, the greatest long-term threat to their continued survival is the expansion of livestock ranching. With ranching usually comes the elimination of wild prey and attempts to exterminate predators. When leopards kill domestic stock they are often shot. If the carcass of a stock animal brought down by a leopard is found, it may be laced with pesticides to poison the cat when it returns to feed on the kill.

Leopards are also shot because they occasionally kill people. Man-eating leopards are feared more than man-eating tigers because leopards actually break into houses to claim their victims whereas tigers kill people who are tending livestock or collecting forest products.

Scientific classification: The leopard belongs to the family Felidae. It is classified as Panthera pardus.