Leopard

Distinguished by its exceptionally beautiful, black-spotted coat, the **leopard** (*Panthera pardus*) is also recognised for its supreme stealth and its remarkable versatility. Despite being the smallest of the ‘big cats’, the leopard is the most widespread of all wild cat species, and is well known for the variety of prey it takes, as well as its ability to occupy a range of habitats, from deserts and mountains to jungles and swamps. The leopard can be individually identified by its spot pattern. Its distinctive black spots contrast with the pale background coat colour and the white underparts. Small, solid black spots mark the head, throat, chest and lower limbs, with larger black patches on the belly. The leopard’s back, flanks and upper limbs are patterned with pale-centred rosettes, which vary greatly in shape and size.

## Leopard Subspecies

* African Leopard
* Amur Leopard
* Anatolian Leopard
* Arabian Leopard
* Barbary Leopard
* Cape Leopard

## Size and Characteristics

The leopard's skin color varies by climate and habitat from pale yellow to yellowish brown or golden. Leopards living in forests are darker than those in arid habitats. Spots fade toward the white underbelly and the insides and lower parts of the legs. Rosettes are most prominent on the back, flanks and hindquarters. The pattern of the rosettes is unique in each individual.Rosettes are circular in East African leopard populations, and tend to be squarish in Southern African and larger in Asian leopard populations. The fur tends to be grayish tones in colder climates, and to a darker golden hue in rainforest habitats.

## Habitats

Leopards are found throughout most of Africa and Asia from the middle east to the Soviet Union, Korea, China, India, and Malaysia. Leopards live in a variety of habitats including forests, mountains, grasslandand deserts.

## Diet

Leopards eat small hoofstock such as gazelle, impala, deer and wildebeast. On occasion, they may also hunt monkeys, rodents and birds. They often bring their prey up into the branches of a tree to eat it and protect it from other predators and scavengers.

## Habits

Leopards are solitary creatures that only spend time with others when they are mating or raising young. They are also nocturnal and spend their nights hunting instead of sleeping. Leopards spend a lot of their time in trees.

## Offspring

Leopards have a gestation period of approximately three months and typically give birth to a litter of two to three cubs in a den, according to PBS Nature. Each cub weighs just 17 to 21 ounces (500 to 600 grams) at birth, is blind and almost hairless

## Black Leopards

Data on the distribution of leopard populations indicates that melanism occurs in seven subspecies: Javan leopard (*P. p. melas*), African leopard (*P. p. pardus*), Indian leopard (*P. p. fusca*), Indochinese leopard (*P. p. delacouri*), Sri Lankan leopard (*P. p. kotiya*), Arabian leopard  and Amur leopard (*P. p. orientalis*).Black leopards are common in the equatorial rainforest of the Malay Peninsula and the tropical rainforest on the slopes of some African mountains such as Mount Kenya.Melanistic leopards are common in Java, and are reported from densely forested areas in southwestern China, Myanmar, Assam and Nepal, from Travancore and some parts of southern India where they may be more numerous than spotted leopards.

In North Africa, dark leopards have been reported in the Atlas Mountains.A black leopard was reported from the alpine zone of Mount Kenya. Black leopards also occur in Kenya's Aberdare Mountains and in Ethiopia. Unconfirmed reports of black leopards exist also in South Africa and in northern Iran. Based on records from camera-traps, melanistic leopards occur foremost in tropical and subtropical moist forests.In 2019, a black leopard was recorded in Kenya's Laikipia County.

The taxonomic status of captive black leopards and the extent of hybridization between different subspecies is uncertain. Therefore, coordinated breeding programs for black leopards do not exist in European and North American zoos. Black leopards occupy space needed for breeding of endangered leopard subspecies and are not kept within the North American Species Survival Plan.

A pseudo-melanistic leopard has a normal background color, but the spots are more densely packed than normal and merge to obscure the golden-brown background color. Any spots on the flanks and limbs that have not merged into the mass of swirls and stripes are unusually small and discrete, rather than forming rosettes. The face and underparts are paler and dappled like those of ordinary spotted leopards.