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Leopard - PANTHERA PARDUS
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Leopard": "Leopard" comes from two Greek words "leon pard," meaning "lion (large) cat."
Location: Africa south of the Sahara and southern Asia.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Wooded savanna and forests, at various altitudes; rocky semidesert areas with scrubby vegetation.
Description: The beautiful and unmistakable coat of the leopard varies in the ground color from yellow to gray. The black spots are grouped in clusters or rosettes. The backs of the ears are black, with a white marking in the middle. Some individuals are completely black (black panthers), but this is more common in parts of southern Asia than in Africa. A leopard can reach five feet long, with another three feet for the tail. This cat weighs up to 100 pounds.
Behavior: The leopard is nearly always solitary except for a brief period of courtship and mating. It is completely nocturnal, and spends its days resting in branches of trees. It lies in ambush in trees for its prey, which it kills with a throat bite, or in larger prey the leopard may twist and break the cervical vertebrae. Its preferred prey is small antelopes, hares, warthogs, and ground birds, but it will eat most species of monkeys, especially baboons. It moves with agility in trees, where it often brings and devours its prey. It adapts quite well to living near places inhabited by man, and will prey on livestock. It is hunted for its coat, and its continued survival is precarious.
Reproduction: The gestation period lasts for about 100 days, after which two or three cubs are born. They nurse for several months and are independent at about one year of age.
Go to the Carnivore Page to learn more about all the meat-eating animals.
Or go to the Cat Index to study other
wild cats.
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