Leopard facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Leopard |
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| Male African leopard in Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya |
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| Present and historical distribution of the leopard |
The leopard (Panthera pardus) is a species of wild cat. The name "leopard" comes from ancient Greek λέοπάρδος (leopardos), meaning 'spotted lion'.
Leopards are pale yellowish to dark golden in color with dark spots grouped in rosettes.
The animal was first described in 1758. Today, eight subspecies are recognised in its wide range in Africa and Asia.
Its habitat ranges from rainforest to steppe, including arid and montane areas. It is an opportunistic predator, hunting mostly ungulates and primates. It uses its spotted pattern as camouflage to stalk and ambush its prey, which it sometimes drags up a tree. It is a solitary animal outside the mating season and when raising cubs. Females usually give birth to a litter of 2–4 cubs once in 15–24 months. Both male and female leopards typically reach sexual maturity at the age 2–2.5 years.
The species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because leopard populations are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. Leopards have had cultural roles in Ancient Greece, West Africa and modern Western culture. Leopard skins have been popular in fashion.
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Description
Leopards have a slender and muscular body. They are 92–183 cm (36–72 in) long and 60–70 cm (24–28 in) high. Their tail is around 66–102 cm (26–40 in) long. Males typically weigh 30.9–72 kg (68–159 lb) and females 20.5–43 kg (45–95 lb).
The leopard's fur is generally soft and thick. It tends to be grayish in colder climates, and dark golden in rainforest habitats. Rosette patterns are unique in each individual. Spots fade toward the white underbelly and the insides and lower parts of the legs.
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Distribution and habitat
The leopard has the largest distribution of all wild cats. It occurrs widely in Africa, the Caucasus and Asia, although populations are fragmented and declining. It inhabits foremost savanna and rainforest, and areas where grasslands, woodlands, and riverine forests remain largely undisturbed. In sub-Saharan Africa, it is still numerous and surviving in marginal habitats where other large cats have disappeared.
In the Russian Far East, it inhabits temperate coniferous forests where winter temperatures reach a low of −25 °C (−13 °F).
Behavior
The leopard is a solitary and territorial animal. It is typically shy and alert when crossing roadways and encountering oncoming vehicles, but may be emboldened to attack people or other animals when threatened. Adults associate only in the mating season. Females continue to interact with their offspring even after weaning and have been observed sharing kills with their offspring when they can not obtain any prey. They produce a number of vocalizations, including growls, snarls, meows, and purrs. The roaring sequence in leopards consists mainly of grunts, also called "sawing", as it resembles the sound of sawing wood. Cubs call their mother with an urr-urr sound.
Some biologists believe that the white tips of the leopards' tails may function as a 'follow-me' signal in communication among individuals.
Leopards are mainly active from dusk till dawn and will rest for most of the day and some hours at night in thickets, among rocks or over tree branches. Leopards have been observed walking 1–25 km (0.62–15.53 mi) across their range at night; wandering up to 75 km (47 mi) if disturbed.
Hunting and diet
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The leopard is a carnivore that prefers medium-sized prey. The most preferred species are ungulates, such as impala, bushbuck, common duiker and chital. Primates preyed upon include white-eyelid mangabeys, guenons and gray langurs. Leopards also kill smaller carnivores like black-backed jackal, bat-eared fox, genet and cheetah.
The leopard depends mainly on its acute senses of hearing and vision for hunting. It primarily hunts at night in most areas. In western African forests and Tsavo National Park, they have also been observed hunting by day. They usually hunt on the ground. In the Serengeti, they have been seen to ambush prey by descending on it from trees.
It stalks its prey and tries to approach as closely as possible, typically within 5 m (16 ft) of the target, and, finally, pounces on it and kills it. It kills small prey with a bite to the back of the neck. It caches kills up to 2 km (1.2 mi) apart. It is able to take large prey due to its powerful jaw muscles, and is therefore strong enough to drag carcasses heavier than itself up into trees. It eats small prey immediately, but drags larger carcasses over several hundred meters and caches it safely in trees, bushes or even caves; this behaviour allows the leopard to store its prey away from rivals, and offers it an advantage over them.
Average daily consumption rates of 3.5 kg (7 lb 11 oz) were estimated for males and of 2.8 kg (6 lb 3 oz) for females. In the southern Kalahari Desert, leopards meet their water requirements by the bodily fluids of prey and succulent plants; they drink water every two to three days and feed infrequently on moisture-rich plants such as gemsbok cucumbers, watermelon and Kalahari sour grass.
Enemies and competitors
In parts of its range, the leopard is sympatric with other large predators such as the tiger, lion, cheetah, spotted hyena, striped hyena, brown hyena, African wild dog, dhole , wolf and up to five bear species. Some of these species steal its kills, kill its cubs and even kill adult leopards. Leopards generally seem to avoid encounters with adult bears and large packs of African wild dogs and dholes.
In the Kalahari Desert, leopards frequently lose kills to brown hyenas, if they are unable to move the kill up a tree. Single brown hyenas have been observed charging at and displacing male leopards from kills. Lions occasionally fetch leopard kills from trees.
In areas where both leopards and tigers live, tigers appear to inhabit the deep parts of the forest while leopards are pushed closer to the fringes. In tropical forests, leopards do not always avoid the larger cats by hunting at different times. With relatively abundant prey and differences in the size of the selected prey, tigers and leopards seem to successfully coexist.
Nile crocodiles occasionally prey on leopards.
Reproduction
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In some areas, leopards mate all year round. In Manchuria and Siberia, they mate during January and February. On average, females begin to breed between the ages of 2½ and three, and males between the ages of two and three. Cubs are usually born in a litter of 2–4 cubs. The mortality rate of cubs is estimated at 41–50% during the first year. Lions and spotted hyenas are the biggest cause for leopard cub mortality during their first year. Intervals between births average 15 to 24 months, but can be shorter, depending on the survival of the cubs.
Females give birth in a cave, crevice among boulders, hollow tree or thicket. Newborn cubs weigh 280–1,000 g (9.9–35.3 oz), and are born with closed eyes, which open four to nine days after birth. The fur of the young tends to be longer and thicker than that of adults. Their pelage is also more gray in colour with less defined spots. They begin to eat meat at around nine weeks. Around three months of age, the young begin to follow the mother on hunts. At one year of age, cubs can probably fend for themselves, but will remain with the mother for 18–24 months. After separating from their mother, sibling cubs may travel together for months.
Conservation
The leopard is listed on CITES Appendix I, and trade is restricted to skins and body parts of 2,560 individuals in 11 sub-Saharan countries. The leopard is primarily threatened by habitat fragmentation and conversion of forest to agriculturally used land, which lead to a declining natural prey base, human–wildlife conflict with livestock herders and high leopard mortality rates. It is also threatened by trophy hunting and poaching. Contemporary records suggest that the leopard occurs in only 25% of its historical range.
The leopard is considered locally extinct in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Jordan, Morocco, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Kuwait, Syria, Libya, Tunisia and most likely in North Korea, Gambia, Laos, Lesotho, Tajikistan, Vietnam and Israel.
Human interaction
Cultural significance
Leopards have been featured in art, mythology and folklore of many countries. In Greek mythology, it was a symbol of the god Dionysus, who was depicted wearing leopard skin and using leopards as means of transportation. In one myth, the god was captured by pirates but two leopards rescued him. During the Benin Empire, the leopard was commonly represented on engravings and sculptures and was used to symbolise the power of the king or oba, since the leopard was considered the king of the forest. The Ashanti also used the leopard as a symbol of leadership, and only the king was permitted to have a ceremonial leopard stool. Some African cultures considered the leopard to be a smarter, better hunter than the lion and harder to kill.
In Rudyard Kipling's "How the Leopard Got His Spots", one of his Just So Stories, a leopard with no spots in the Highveld lives with his hunting partner, the Ethiopian. When they set off to the forest, the Ethiopian changed his brown skin, and the leopard painted spots on his skin. A leopard played an important role in the 1938 Hollywood film Bringing Up Baby.
The leopard is a frequently used in heraldry, most commonly as passant. The heraldic leopard lacks spots and sports a mane, making it visually almost identical to the heraldic lion, and the two are often used interchangeably. Naturalistic leopard-like depictions appear on the coat of arms of Benin, Malawi, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon, the last of which uses a black panther.
In captivity
The ancient Romans kept leopards in captivity to be slaughtered in hunts as well as to be used in executions of criminals. In Benin, leopards were kept and paraded as mascots, totems and sacrifices to deities. Several leopards were kept in a menagerie originally established by King John of England at the Tower of London in the 13th century; around 1235, three of these animals were given to Henry III by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In modern times, leopards have been trained and tamed in circuses.
Interesting facts about leopards
- The leopard is one of the five extant species in the genus Panthera.
- It probably evolved in Africa about 0.5 to 0.8 million years ago and radiated across Asia about 0.2 and 0.3 million years ago.
- The name 'leopard' λέοπάρδος was originally given to a cheetah.
- Melanistic leopards are known as black panthers.
- The maximum recorded weight of a wild leopard in Southern Africa was around 96 kg (212 lb).
- The largest recorded skull of a leopard was found in India in 1920 and measured 28 cm (11 in) in basal length, 20 cm (7.9 in) in breadth, and weighed 1 kg (2.2 lb).
- Leopards can climb trees quite skillfully, often resting on tree branches and descending headfirst.
- They can run at over 58 km/h (36 mph; 16 m/s), leap over 6 m (20 ft) horizontally, and jump up to 3 m (9.8 ft) vertically.
- The average life span of a leopard is 12–17 years.
- The oldest leopard was a captive female that died at the age of 24 years, 2 months and 13 days.
- In 1953, a male leopard and a female lion were crossbred in Hanshin Park in Nishinomiya, Japan. Their offspring known as a leopon was born in 1959 and 1961, all cubs were spotted and bigger than a juvenile leopard.
See also
In Spanish: Leopardo para niños
