Hello! We are ferocious and highly agile big cats, the Leopards. Don’t confuse us with cheetahs, our spots and patterns on our skin differ from that of cheetah’s.
Read below and you can know more about us:
- Do you know? The most prominent feature of ours is our very strong jaws. We can crush the skull of any animal and can drag the carcass even to the tree branches.
- We might not be as fast as cheetahs, but we can run fast. Our speeds can reach 70- 75kmph.
- Our earliest known fossils are found in Europe and are 6,00,000 years old!
- We are well known for our polymorphism which has appeared in various cartoons and movies.
- The melanism that makes our skin black makes us black panthers which is a famous superhero character. A morph causes our spots and body to turn into light-pink color making us Pink Panthers or Strawberry Leopards which is also a famous cartoon character.
- We play a prominent role throughout history in art, mythology, and folklore in Ancient Greece, Persia, and Rome.
- Did you know? The largest domestication of our species was done under King John of England in 13th century.
SOME QUICK NOTES:
Our Scientific Name: Panthera Pardus Fusca.
Our Identification: Tiger like big cats with orange filled black spots on the body.
Our Habitat: Live on trees in all kinds of forests.
Our range:
Our Food habits: Carnivorous; chital, muntjac, sambar, four-horned antelope, deer, Nilgiri tahr, gaur, wild boar, colobus, langur, gorilla, baboon, black-backed jackal, hares, porcupine, and Giraffe.
Our Breeding Period: All around the year.
Our Gestation Period: 90-105 days.
Number of cubs born: 2-4
Lifespan: 12-17 years.
Estimated Population: 12,000-14,000
IUCN red list status: Vulnerable
CITES: Appendix III
Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule III
SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Pantherinae
Genus: Panthera
Species: P.pardus
Subspecies: Fusca
COMPLETE DETAILS ABOUT US FOR ANIMAL ENTHUSIASTS:
Leopards belong to large cats’ families along with the other 4 species Lion, Tiger, Jaguar, and Snow Leopard.
Leopards are scientifically called as Panthera Pardus Fusca.
HOW WE LOOK:
We are stunningly beautiful animals with bright orange circles (sometimes square shaped) or spots called “rosettes” present on our coat. The pattern of the rosettes is unique in each individual. Our skin color varies from pale yellow to yellowish brown or golden.
We are muscular, with short limbs and broadheads. A male leopard is 60–70 cm tall at the shoulder and the female is 57–64 cm tall. A male leopard weighs 37–90 kg and a female leopard weighs 28–60 kg.
Our fur is soft and thick on the back and softer on the belly. Baby leopards (cubs) have fur that is woolly and appear dark as the spots are arranged densely.
We are usually confused with the cheetah, however; we can be distinguished by observing rosettes on our body instead of small round spots as present on a cheetah.
WE ARE FOUND IN:
We normally live where there is no competition for food from other larger predators like lion and tiger.We can be found in the Indian Subcontinent i.e. India, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.
In India, we normally live in the forests but sometimes few of us live relatively close to human settlements and even in semi-developed areas. As we have an amazing ability to be cautious and secretive, people usually do not know that we live nearby them.
WHAT WE EAT:
Being nocturnal, we generally hunt in the night. We have an acute sense of hearing and vision which we use for hunting. We are carnivores that hunt and feed on medium-sized prey with a body mass ranging from 10–40 kg.
As per the data recorded, we have more than 100 prey species. Animals like chital, muntjac, sambar, four-horned antelope, deer, Nilgiri tahr, gaur and wild boar are the prey for us in Asia.
We also feed on Primate prey species like Colobus, langur, and less frequently also gorilla and baboon and also small mammals like a black-backed jackal, hares, porcupine, etc. We are also capable of hunting larger prey like Giraffe in the absence of bigger predators like lion and tiger.
We have a massive skull and powerful jaws. When we hunt, we stalk the prey and try to approach as close as possible, typically within 5 m and then jumps on it and kills it by suffocation.
Small prey is killed by biting on the back of the neck, whereas large prey is killed by biting the throat and strangling. It eats the small prey immediately, while the large prey is dragged and settled in trees or bushes to be consumed afterward.
REPRODUCTION:
We are solitary animals, i.e. we live alone and meet other leopards occasionally. We may mate all year round. The gestation period is for 90 to 105 days.2-4 cubs are born on average. The female leopard gives birth in places like a cave, among boulders or a hollow tree.
The newly born cubs have closed eyes, which open four to nine days after birth. The cubs live with their mothers and follow their mothers on the hunt when they are around three months of age.
Young leopard can probably fend for themselves at one year of age but remain with its mother for 18–24 months.
The average typical lifespan of us is between 12 and 17 years.
MORE ABOUT US:
The most notable ability of us is that due to our strong jaws we can carry heavy carcasses of prey to large distances and also climb trees with the prey and feed on it, making us the strongest climber among large cats.
We are an excellent swimmer and extremely stealthy while hunting.
We are nocturnal by nature, live alone and marks our territories.
We are excellent runners with running at speeds of about 58 kmph. In short bursts, they can reach up to 70-75 kmph.
OUR CONSERVATION:
Globally leopard is listed as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List. We are under “Appendix- III” listed by CITES and “Schedule-III” under Indian Wildlife Protection Act.
Our populations are threatened by habitat loss and illegal hunting for our body parts leading to declining in population in large parts of the world
In India, our population is doing quite well. The overall leopard population in India (except Northeast) is 7910 but adding the other uncharted areas, it can range up to 12000-14000 individuals.
State wise, number of leopards found are 194 in UP, 703 in Uttarakhand, 32 in Bihar, 472 in Kerala, 1129 in Karnataka, 815 in Tamil Nadu, 71 in Goa, 343 in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 846 in Chhattisgarh, 29 in Jharkhand, 345 in Odisha, 171 in Rajasthan, 1817 in MP and 905 in Maharashtra.
