Leopard

Shelter for Animal | Leopard | Panthers is not a specific species but rather an umbrella term for several big cats in the Panthera genus including Leopard and Jaguar, a Black panther when not Wakanda’s king. By the way, since Wakanda is in Africa and not South America. Black Panther the character would be a black leopard.

Leopard species

Leopards or Panthera Pardus belonged to the pen berry genus and are distantly related to clouded leopards but have closer ties with snow leopards, tigers, jaguars, and lions. The lions being their closest relatives. Leopards are the smallest of the big cats though that term is a bit tricky big cat refers to the four members of the Pentair genus that can tigers, lions, jaguars, and leopards excluded are snow leopards, which are larger than the Arabian leopard subspecies.

Clouded leopards which earned in the Panthera genus she does Pumas and several others the ability to roar comes from a specialized voice box with a stretchable ligament instead of a solid epi hile bone. This flexible structure allows for the low deep uneven rumble that makes up a roar in small cats that voice box is a fixed structure that vibrates when breathing allowing for small cats to purr something that big cats can’t do.

Body appearance

Leopards can be tough to tell apart from Jaguars which live in South America but the easiest way is by their spots or lack. Thereof both leopards and jaguars have spots on their coats called rosettes but Panthera pardus don’t have dots inside the rosette while Jaguars do Jake’s wars are also bulkier than their slider cousins from across the and depending on the species of leopard.

They’re cooked very in color those that live in grasslands have lighter coats and those that live in rainforests have darker coats. Panthera pardus with melanism so a black coat is primarily found in the dark rain forests of Southeast Asia where the darkness gives them an advantage over their lighter brethren. Black leopards are not completely black, however, and if you look closely you’ll see that they feature the same rosettes as all leopards.

Leopard habitat

There are nine extant subspecies of leopards and they can be found across Africa and Asia each named for the region they inhabit due to this massive range of different landscapes and terrains. They have become masters of adaptability. They are champion hunters adept at stalking prey in the mountains of northwestern China, the jungles of Thailand, the Savanna grasslands of southern Africa, and everything in between.

Leopard’s size

Since their range is so much more extensive than all the other big cats and since they’re the smallest of the big cats. Leopards can often find themselves knocked off the top of the food chain if there’s a lion, a tiger, or a pack of hyenas present, however, what leopards lack in size. They make up for in stealth they’re the most arboreal of the big cats and often hunt by silently dropping out of trees onto unsuspecting prey.

Leopards come equipped with elongated muscular hind legs that provide the power. They need to launch themselves into woods just to stay away from competing predators and scavenger lovers will use their muscular legs to drag their prey back up into the tree which can be anything from gazelle to baboons to the occasional giraffe.

Leopard speed

Leopards are pretty speedy topping out at 58 kilometers an hour but they are chasers they’re ambush predators. They’ll wait for prey to enter their trap and then pounce or drop. They can leap forward six meters and are very conscious of their surroundings when stalking prey. So, if you’re ever in leopard territory better lookup drop cats third only to the Jaguar and tiger.

Leopard adaptations

Leopards are very strong swimmers and have no problem diving underwater for a meal. There is no specific mating season and males will track females down through scent and followed them around until she decides. She’s ready to breed litters are small usually two or three baby cubs and they live with their mother in the small dinner burrow at three months.

Mother will start taking them out and teaching them to do leopard things you know stalking pouncing killing all that fun stuff mother will stay with the cubs for about two years before they’re ready to set out on their own.

Are leopards endangered?

Leopards are primarily killed by big-game hunters and poachers who sell their coats and whiskers the latter of which are used in some West African potions while poaching and big-game hunting are easy to demonize the other source of their endangerment isn’t local. Dolphins hunt livestock in very poor countries so to keep their herd safe farmers will often poison or shoot the large cats is the issue.

That is a bit easier to empathize with than say making potions out of their whiskers coats out of their coats and killing leopards for Instagram likes, fortunately, there are programs in place that are making progress incentivizing local farmers not to kill leopards instead they’re encouraged to capture the Panthera pardus which is examined by veterinarians and then released back into its original territory.

Studies have found that the trauma of the capture was enough to keep them from returning to hunt at those farms leopards have gone extinct in six countries and there are six more on the way. They have vanished from 49% of their historic range in Africa and 84% of their historic range in Eurasia.

The Amur leopard is especially threatened with only 57 remaining in their natural habitat in Russia that being said there’s good news as a result of the Russian government establishing a massive 262 thousand hectare National Park in 2012. Our leopards have almost doubled in population in the region since seven from 30 to 57.

Reference: Wikipedia, Britannica