Leopard

Quick Take

• The black panther isn't a separate species, and what it actually is will completely change how you see leopards. Discover the black panther truth →
• The biggest predator threatening adult leopards isn't lions, crocodiles, or humans. It's something far closer to home. See leopards' closest threats →
• Leopards drag prey heavier than themselves into treetops, and the reason why turns out to be a smarter survival strategy than it looks. Explore the tree-hoisting strategy →
• One leopard subspecies was declared extinct after a 1974 sighting, though scientists still can't agree on whether it's truly gone. Find the disputed extinct subspecies →

The leopard is a medium-sized wildcat that lives in a variety of habitats across sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. Distinguished by their uniquely beautiful “spotted” coat, leopards are apex predators that ambush prey from a perch in the trees. This hunting method differs from that of their big cat cousins, who engage their prey in high-speed chases.

Evolution

The first mammals are believed to have lived approximately 210 to 225 million years ago. The first carnivores came from animals known as miacoids about 55 million years ago. These small tree dwellers had developed sharp teeth adapted for shearing flesh. Miacoids are the oldest relative of the modern-day leopard.

Carnivores, or the Carnivora order, split into two sub-orders — Caniformia and Feliformia — somewhere between 42 and 55 million years ago. The Caniformia group was more bear-like and evolved into bears, dogs, weasels, raccoons, skunks, badgers, sea lions, walruses, and seals. Feliformia was more cat-like and evolved into cats, hyenas, and mongooses.

Proailurus, the genus of the oldest cat, lived 30 million years ago, the first fossils of which researchers discovered in France in 1879. This arboreal creature weighed around 20 pounds and had more teeth than modern cats. 20 million years ago, the direct ancestor of modern cats, Pseudaelurines, lived, according to the fossil record. Fossil records from the La Brea Tar Pits indicate that the saber-tooth tiger, Smilodon fatalis, lived in that area at least 1.8 million years ago. These big cats became extinct around 10,000 years ago.

Classification and Scientific Name

Leopards are big cats in the family Felidae, with the scientific name Panthera pardus.

There are eight different subspecies of leopards. Each differs in appearance and geographic location, with the African leopard being the most widespread.

• African leopards (Panthera pardus pardus): Reside in a variety of African habitats, including deserts, forests, mountains, and coastlines. They are fast and agile, and they are able to carry heavy prey up trees with ease.
• Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis): Native to southeastern Russia and northern China. This critically endangered animal is one of the rarest cats on earth.
• Anatolian Leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana): Native to Iran, Turkey, the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The last official sighting of the Anatolian leopard occurred in 1974 after the animal was killed following an attack on a woman. Some scientists have declared it extinct while others believe there are still 10 to 15 Anatolian leopards in the wild.
• Barbary Leopard (Panthera pardus panthera): Also called the North African leopard, it lives in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Experts thought them to be extinct, but nonetheless, a small population survives.
• Sinai Leopard (Panthera pardus jarvisi): A critically endangered big cat native to the Arabian Peninsula. It lives in mountainous uplands and steppes.
• South Arabian Leopard (Panthera pardus nimir): Native to the Arabian Peninsula and is also critically endangered. It is the smallest member of the leopard family and adapted to life in the desert.
• Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus): A large African leopard that last lived on Unguja Island in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Declared extinct in the mid-1990s, the Zanzibar leopard was the island’s largest carnivore and an apex predator.

Anatomy and Appearance

The leopard has a long, lithe body supported by powerful legs, and a long tail used for balance in the trees. Leopards can vary greatly in their coloration and markings depending on their surrounding habitat. Those on open grasslands have a light yellow, sun-bleached background coat. Meanwhile, those that live in forests tend to be darker to blend into the shade and have more markings for camouflage.

The dark, ring-like patterns that cover the leopard’s coat are rosettes, which provide them with camouflage in their surrounding environment. Leopards are incredibly strong and muscular animals and are able to pull themselves up trees using their legs and retractable claws. Like many other feline species, the leopard is able to draw its claws into folds of skin on its paws. That ability ensures that their claws don’t become blunt while the animal is walking. Their remarkable eyesight and hearing give them a great advantage during night hunting.

Habitat

Leopards have not only the widest range of all big cats, but they are also one of the most adaptable. In fact, they live in a variety of habitats. They commonly make their home throughout sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. There are also small and isolated populations of leopards inhabiting remote geographic locations in the Far East, Northern Africa, and Arabia. Provided there is a good source of cover and an ample supply of food, leopards will inhabit numerous habitats. Those include tropical rainforests, tree-lined savannas, barren deserts, and mountain highlands.

One of the reasons why experts believe they continue to survive successfully throughout much of their natural range is that leopards have adapted to the growing presence of people. In fact, they both live and hunt in areas close to urban activity. However, in some parts of their natural range, deforestation and growing settlements threaten populations with the loss of their habitat.

Behavior and Lifestyle

Leopards are solitary animals that hunt both on the ground and in the trees. They are excellent climbers, spending the majority of daytime hours resting in tree branches or under sheltered rocks. They are unique amongst large felines, as leopards rely heavily on being able to get close enough to their prey before ambushing it, rather than expelling vast amounts of energy in a high-speed chase. Once they catch and kill their prey, they drag it to safety either into dense vegetation or up a tree trunk and into the branches.

Leopards mark their territory using scent markings and by producing rough, rasping calls, which some say sound like sawing through coarse wood. Home range sizes vary depending on the habitat and the food available, but those of male leopards are significantly larger than those of their female counterparts, which often overlap the ranges of a number of both males and other females (sometimes by up to 40%).

Reproduction and Life Cycles

Throughout their natural range, leopards have no distinctive breeding season, with females instead being able to reproduce every couple of months. After a gestation period that lasts for around three months, the female leopard gives birth to between two and six cubs that are born blind and weigh about one pound. Leopard cubs are incredibly vulnerable in the wild. Because of that, they remain hidden in dense vegetation, into which their dark, woolly fur and blurry spots allow them to camouflage. They hide this way until they can follow their mother around between 6 and 8 weeks of age.

Weaned at around 3 months old, leopard cubs will remain with their mother for another 18 months until she is ready to mate again and encourages her young to independently establish their own territories. Although male leopards live solitary lives except when mating, female leopards’ ranges tend to overlap with their mothers’ ranges. Leopards tend to live for between ten and fifteen years in the wild, depending on the habitat and the food supply available.

Diet and Prey

Leopards primarily hunt medium-sized mammals such as deer and warthogs, and these cats often ambush this prey from the branches above or dense vegetation just meters away. The leopard also eats a wide variety of small prey, including birds, reptiles, and rodents. They even hunt dung beetles when larger animals are scarce.

By eating much smaller prey (and a wider variety of prey), leopards can avoid intense competition for food from other large carnivores like tigers and hyenas, with which they share parts of their natural range. Leopards are incredibly strong and capable of taking prey much heavier than themselves. Such prey includes antelopes. They then remarkably haul their meal into the safety of the branches to either eat it immediately or cache it for later.

Predators and Threats

Because the leopard is a stealthy apex predator throughout its natural range, the biggest threat to adult leopards is generally other leopards, along with the occasional lion or tiger that can get close enough.

Nile crocodiles also pose a threat due to their immense strength, extreme aggression, and willingness to sink their fangs into anything — they have taken on leopards crossing bodies of water and won.

Pythons are another especially formidable foe and have in the past overpowered these beautiful apex predators.

Young leopard cubs, however, are much more vulnerable, and the fact that they have numerous natural predators leads them to remain hidden in dense vegetation for their first couple of months. Leopard cubs are most at risk from hyenas, jackals, lions, tigers, snakes, and birds of prey. Despite their adaptability to differing surroundings, leopard populations in parts of their natural range are declining due to habitat loss to the timber industry and agriculture and hunting by humans as trophies and for their meat and fur.

Interesting Facts and Features

Originally thought to be a hybrid of the lion and the jaguar, the leopard has been the subject of much genetic confusion and wasn’t really distinguished properly until just over 100 years ago. Some of the confusion is thought to come from the black panther, which is a leopard that has a completely black coat of fur, with occasional faint markings.

This genetic mutation, melanism, causes large amounts of dark pigment to occur in the skin and fur, and several mammalian species exhibit it. Black panthers tend to occur most in dense forests, with larger populations being found in southern Asia than in Africa, and are born into a litter that also contains yellow cubs. Black panthers are actually fairly common and, amazingly enough, researchers believe that up to 50% of the leopards found inhabiting the thick, tropical rainforests of the Malay Peninsula are black.

Relationship with Humans

Since big game hunting took off in Africa, the leopard has been one of the most sought-after animals for hunters to kill. Because leopards are part of the African “Big Five” — the most desirable animals for sports hunters — trophy hunting has severely affected them in some areas. Locals who live near these big cats also often kill them for their meat and fur. Beyond that, many see them as pests to farms and livestock, due to their lack of fear of people, even though leopards are seldom seen.

Despite their persecution, recent booms in the tourist industry in Africa have meant that more and more people are paying for the privilege to see one of these majestic animals in the wild. That brings money into local communities, making locals more willing to protect these cats, as leopards now provide an important new source of income.

Conservation Status and Life Today

Today, the IUCN lists the leopard as being Vulnerable in its natural environment, as populations are stable throughout much of its range. Several subspecies, however, are either Endangered or Critically Endangered in their native habitats, and one is thought to now be extinct. This is due to the fact that these populations are either small or geographically isolated, and because local hunting and habitat loss severely affect them. For example, the Javan leopard from the Indonesian island of Java is one of the most endangered animals in the world. In several African countries, however, sport hunters still legally hunt leopards as trophies, with annual quotas allocated by CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).