Leopards

Leopard Facts

Classification:

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Subkingdom: Bilateria
• Phylum: Chordata
• Subphylum: Vertebrata
• Class: Mammalia
• Subclass: Theria
• Order: Carnivora
• Family: Felidae (cats)
• Genus and species:Panthera pardus
• Geographical location: Found over most of Africa south of the Sahara, in the Middle East and India, north to central Asia, and south to Indonesia
• Habitat: Grasslands, forests, mountains, and jungles
• Gestational period: 3 to 3.5 months
• Life span: About fifteen years in the wild, twenty to twenty-five years in captivity
• Special anatomy: Large eyes with excellent night vision; jaws adapted to seizing and gripping prey, teeth designed for tearing and slicing flesh

Male leopards vary in length from five to eight feet, including a twenty-eight to thirty-seven inch tail. They stand eighteen to thirty-two inches high at the shoulder and weigh from fifty-five to two hundred pounds, depending on subspecies and geographic area. The largest leopards tend to inhabit mountainous terrain and colder regions. On average, females are 40 percent smaller than males. Leopard coats are short and sleek in the tropics and densely furred in colder areas. Their base color varies from yellow cream in desert areas, to golden yellow in grasslands, becoming deep gold in mountains and forests. All leopards are spotted, with black spots arranged in rosettes along the back and sides. Unlike jaguars, leopard rosettes do not have a spot in the center. Leopards in dark, moist tropical forests of Asia are often melanistic and are called black panthers; dark coats may be advantageous in areas of dim light.

The name leopard is also given to two other species: the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), displaying cream-colored fur and grayish rosettes, that inhabits mountainous Central Asia, and the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) of Southeast Asia, carrying grayish fur with cloudlike blotches on its sides; however, they are classified in different genera. As of 2008, the snow leopard was listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's watch list, while the clouded leopard and the leopard were included as vulnerable as of 2016.

Leopard Behavior

Leopard litters average two cubs; weaned at about three months, they soon begin to accompany their mother on hunts. Cubs remain with their mothers eighteen to twenty-four months before leaving to establish their own territories. Adult leopards are solitary hunters. Males sometimes hunt with females shortly after mating but play no role in raising the young.

Leopards are stealthy nocturnal or crepuscular hunters, preferring to stalk prey in the dark or half-light. They pursue a wide variety of targets as opportunity offers, including reptiles, rodents, birds, fish, and hoofed animals. Leopards kill by biting their victims’ necks, strangling them, or severing their spinal cords with canine teeth. Scissoring carnassial teeth and rasplike papillae soon clean all bones of meat. Where their habitat abuts human settlements, leopards hunt close to houses, sometimes eating pets or livestock, but rarely attacking humans. Leopards are agile climbers; in areas where they face competition from lions or hyenas, leopards carry prey twice their body weight high into trees to discourage scavengers.

Relations with Humans

Leopard populations have been decimated by intensive hunting for their prized fur and through destruction of their habitat by expanding human populations. Originally, leopards had the widest east-west range and greatest habitat tolerance of any feline species. Their range included all of Africa outside the Sahara, as well as the Middle East, India, Indonesia, China, Korea, and eastern Siberia. Leopards are now endangered in much of Asia and virtually extinct in North Africa, the Middle East, China, and Korea. The number of Amur leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis) held in zoos greatly exceeds the estimated number still inhabiting the wild.

International traffic in leopard skins, though banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, continues to be a problem, yet the leopard is showing greater survival success than its feline competitors in Africa, the lion and the cheetah. Leopards persist in substantial numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, where they are protected. Perhaps one hundred thousand or more roam the African plains, a number greater than the estimated total population of all other great cats—lions, tigers, jaguars, and mountain lions—combined. However, even where they are valued and guarded as tourist attractions in national parks, illegal hunters continue killing them and farmers on the edge of parks spread poison to protect their cattle and sheep from wandering predators.

Wherever human populations press on leopard habitat, often exaggerated stories of man-eaters arise. One such narrative describes the “Man-Eating Leopard of Rudyaprayag,” who was accused of stalking and killing 115 pilgrims en route to a religious shrine in northern India, over a period of eight years, before being hunted down and killed.

Principal Terms

canines: four pointed, elongated teeth that grasp and kill prey

carnassials: pairs of large, cross-shearing teeth on each side of jaw

crepuscular: active at twilight or before sunset

melanistic: having dark coloration of skin and hair

papillae: sharp, curved projections on tongue

Bibliography

Adamson, Joy. Queen of Shaba: The Story of an African Leopard. Harcourt, 1980.

Brakefield, Tom. Kingdom of Might: The World’s Big Cats. Voyageur, 1993.

Howard, Brian Clark. "Leopards Have Lost Three-Fourths of Their Territory." National Geographic, 4 May 2016, news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160504-leopard-range-shrinks-endangered-subspecies/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2016.

Kitchener, Andrew. The Natural History of the Wild Cats. Comstock, 1991.

Lumpkin, Susan. Big Cats. Facts on File, 1993.

Sleeper, Barbara, and Art Wolfe. Wild Cats of the World. Crown, 1995.