LEOPARD
Alternate
titles:
Leopard (Panthera pardus), formerly pard or pardus, is large cat
closely related to the lion, tiger, and jaguar. The
name leopard was originally given to the cat now called cheetah the so-called
hunting leopard which was once thought to be a cross between the lion and the
pard. The term pard was eventually replaced by the name leopard.
The leopard is found over nearly the whole of Africa south of the Sahara, in northeast Africa, and
from Asia Minor through Central Asia and India to China and Manchuria. It varies greatly in size and
markings. The average size is 50 to 90 kg (110 to 200 pounds) in weight, 210 cm
(84 inches), excluding the 90-cm tail, in length, and 60 to 70 cm in shoulder
height. The leopard can, however, grow much larger. The ground colour is
typically yellowish above and white below. Dark spots are generally arranged in
rosettes over much of the body and are without the central spot characteristic
of the coat of the jaguar; the ground
colour within the rosettes is sometimes a darker yellow, and the size and
spacing of the spots vary greatly. As a result of these differences in pattern,
several races of leopard have been named.
The leopard is
a solitary animal of the bush and forest and is mainly
nocturnal in habit, although it sometimes basks in the sun. It is an agile
climber and frequently stores the remains of its kills in the branches of a
tree. It feeds upon any animals it can overpower, from small rodents to
waterbuck, but generally preys on the smaller and medium-sized antelopes and
deer; it appears to have a special liking for dogs as food and, in Africa, for
baboons. It sometimes takes livestock and may attack human beings.
There is no definite breeding season; the
female produces two to four, usually three, cubs after a gestation period of
about three months. The calls of the leopard vary and include a series of harsh
coughs, throaty growls, and deep purring sounds. The animal takes to water
readily and is a good swimmer.
A black form,
in which the ground colour as well as the spots is black, is widely known as
theblack
panther; it is more common in the Far East than in other parts of
the range of the leopard. The races known as the Barbary, South Arabian,
Anatolian, Amur, and Sinai leopards are listed as endangered in the Red Data Book.
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