Leopard - The Tree Climbing Big Cat / Documentary (English/HD)

The name “leopard” has its roots in the Greek word “leopardus” which is derived from “Leo” meaning lion and “Pardus” representing panther. As a result, therefore, the leopard is also sometimes called a panther. A fun fact: did you know that it was the cheetah that was initially referred to as the ‘leopard’? That is because it was initially thought that cheetahs were a crossbreed of lions and panthers. Consisting of tigers, lions, and jaguars, the leopard is the smallest of the Big Four cats. However, it is still larger than the cheetah.

Though resembling a cheetah, the leopard has an unmistakable physical appearance. It has a broad head, a powerful long tail, and a long body supported by four slender legs with rosette spotted gold-colored coat. They are most famous for their speed, adaptability, ability to climb trees with prey double their weight, and stealth. Being masters of ambush and stealth, they are known to enter villages undetected and steal sleeping dogs during the night.

They might look graceful and feline but don’t be deceived into wishing you had one as a pet because beneath their gentle-looking disposition lies a ferocious nature that has permanently engraved their name in the black book of human-animal encounters. But, that’s a story for later in this video, let’s first discuss just how much they weigh and measure in size.

A male leopard is visibly larger than a female. Apart from the visible size difference, another way to distinguish between both genders is that male leopards generally have broader heads and larger paws. Excluding the tail, the leopard would often measure between 4 and 6.5 feet or 1.2 to 2 meters from its head to its rump while the tail alone measures between 3.5 and 4.5 feet (that’s about 1.1 to 1.4 meters).

Males usually weigh between 90 and 200 pounds (or 40 to 90 kilograms); females on the other hand weigh most of the times between 65 and 130 pounds (or about 30 to 60 kilograms). In terms of height, the males of these spotted felines grow to between 2 to 2.3 feet (that’s more or less 60 to 70 centimeters) at shoulder level.

There are several subspecies of the leopard and they can all be found in two continents; Africa and Asia. Leopards are great at adapting to just about any environment and are found in various habitats such as dense rainforests, woodlands, savannas, deserts, high altitudes such as mountains, swamps, coastal shrubs, etc. They are therefore the most widely distributed of all large cats as their range covers 35 African countries stretching across East and sub-Sahara Africa.

They are also present in Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, the Himalayan foothills, China, Sinai/Judean desert, India, Sri Lanka, Java, and as far as eastern Russia. It is across this vast range that the nine subspecies of leopards can be found. One major difference among these leopards is their irregular rosette spotted patterns. These spots are known as rosettes since they resemble the shape of a rose flower.

The African leopard, for example, tends to have rosette spots that are circular while that of Asian leopards tend to be square-shaped. There is a rare kind of leopard – the Black Panther, with spots difficult to see except under certain light conditions. Having examined its habitat and range, what do they eat?

Leopards are carnivores – flesh-eaters that would prey on whatever is readily available and within reach. As such, leopards would hunt a plethora of animals depending on the animals available in their location. From large to small, some of the animals they hunt and eat include impalas, guinea fowl, chital, baboons, springbok, bushbuck, hares, guenon, eland, gray langur, warthogs, duiker, gazelle, snakes, antelope, birds, rodents, zebra, porcupines, and even fish as they are great swimmers although not as good as tigers.

Leopards also do hunt other predatory animals such as foxes, jackals, lion cubs, cheetah cubs, genet, and other leopards (cubs and matured leopards). Whatever they can overpower, they would hunt. Relying on stealth, leopards are successful ambush hunters that can spring into speeds reaching 60km/h or about 37mph thanks to powerful legs and retractable claws!

Narrator: Larry G. Jones

Видео Leopard - The Tree Climbing Big Cat / Documentary (English/HD) канала Jinzo X