Watch A Black Panther And Fierce Leopard Go Face-To-Face High Up In A Tree

Written by Sharon Parry
Updated: October 18, 2023
Share on:

The Kabini Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Karnataka in the southern part of India and contains a diverse variety of wildlife species located in many habitats including dense forests, lakes, streams and steep valleys. Two of the most stunning and agile animals that you’ll see here are the black panther and the leopard. However, as you see here when these two big cats come face-to-face in a tree, they don’t think much of each other!

Check Out The Entire Video Below!

Black Panthers Are Striking Animals

Animals in Movies

Black panthers have retractable claws for combat.

©sergeyle le/Shutterstock.com

‘Black panther’ is a generic term to describe any big cat that is black! So, black panthers are usually leopards or jaguars that have an unusual coloring. As this is in India, this particular black panther is likely to be a leopard. Wherever you find leopards, you are likely to find black panthers but they are unusual. The Kabini Park is one place where you do get to see them.

Black panthers can also be dark brown and do actually have spots – it’s just that it is hard to see them on their shiny dark coat. They have emerald green eyes, a small head and a strong jaw. These big cats are intelligent, agile and exceptionally good at climbing trees. The black panther in this vid gives us an excellent demonstration of this. In fact, they are quite happy to hang around in trees for long periods and have no problem scaling vertical trunks.

Javan leopard

Leopards use their long tails to balance in trees

©ylq/Shutterstock.com

Leopards Enjoying Tree Life

Black panthers are leopards so it should come as no surprise that they are also very good at moving around in trees. The leopard in this vid is chilling out when they are disturbed by the panther.

Leopards are native to Africa and Asia and they like to live in rainforests, grasslands and mountainous habitats. Most of their time is spent high in trees where, as we see here, they do not like to be disturbed by panthers. They have a distinctive spotted coat and grow to around 165 pounds. Their body is lithe and their legs are powerful and they use their long tail for balancing on branches.

Javan leopard

Leopards love to climb. They will often take their prey and stash it in trees to protect it from scavengers.

©Daniel_Ferryanto/Shutterstock.com

The leopards that live in forests have darker spots because that helps them to remain hidden. This sharp-eyed panther, however, spots this leopard from the ground and climbs up to investigate!

The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/slowmotiongli


Share on:
About the Author

Dr Sharon Parry is a writer at A-Z animals where her primary focus is on dogs, animal behavior, and research. Sharon holds a PhD from Leeds University, UK which she earned in 1998 and has been working as a science writer for the last 15 years. A resident of Wales, UK, Sharon loves taking care of her spaniel named Dexter and hiking around coastlines and mountains.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us? Contact the AZ Animals editorial team.