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The leopard is the fourth largest cat in the world, after tigers, lions and jaguars, and is the strongest climber among the large cats. It can grow over 6 feet long and can weigh up to 200 pounds. Few other cats are as varied in appearance as the leopard. Coat colors range from pale yellow to bright chestnut and sometimes black, with square and circular black spots.
The leopard is extremely elusive, and is often mistaken for other large cats such as the jaguar and the cheetah.
Leopards live in grasslands and forests throughout Africa, but can adapt to many landscapes. Leopards are nocturnal, solitary animals and are graceful, agile climbers and strong swimmers. Each leopard has a home rage and stealthily patrols this territory at night, marking it with urine and claw marks. Leopards avoid one another, but since territories often overlap, they announce their presence to one another with a raspy growl.
The leopard hunts a wide variety of animals, such as monkeys, rodents, reptiles, birds, fish, and antelopes. It is capable of killing animals much larger than itself. The leopard can run up to 40 miles per hour in short bursts and can jump up to 10 feet in the air. Because the leopard is solitary, animals that kill in groups like hyenas and lions often steal recently killed prey from a single leopard. To avoid this, leopards store their larger kills high in the trees so they can feed on them in safety.
Humans illegally hunt the leopard for its fur and this presents the largest threat to the leopard population, in addition to habitat loss. The ability of the leopard to adapt to multiple landscapes has helped them survive the threat of decreasing habitat better than many other large cats.
Some leopards are solid black as a result of melanism, an increased amount of black pigmentation, and are known as black panthers.
Nature picture credits (left to right): Photo © Gert Vrey (in tree); Photo © Jim Clark (profile).
