LeopardFor other uses, see Leopard (disambiguation). |
| Binomial name |
|---|
| Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Leopards (Panthera pardus) are one of the four 'big cats' of the genus Panthera. They range in size from one to almost two metres long, and weigh between 30 and 70 kg. The leopard is a sexually dimorphic species, with females being typically around two-thirds the size of males.
Most leopards are light tan or fawn with black spots, but their coat color is highly variable. The spots tend to be smaller on the head, and larger with pale centres on the body.
Originally, it was thought that a leopard was a hybrid between a lion and a panther, and the leopard's common name derives from this belief; leo is the Latin for lion, and pard is an old term meaning panther. In fact, a "panther" can be any of several species of large felid. In North America panther means puma and in South America a panther is a jaguar. Elsewhere in the world a panther is a leopard. Early naturalists distinguished between leopards and panthers not by color (a common misconception), but by the length of the tail - panthers having longer tails than pards (leopards).
A black panther is a melanistic leopard (or melanistic jaguar). These have mutations that cause them to produce more black pigment (eumelanin) than orange-tan pigment (pheomelanin). This results in a chiefly black coat, though the spots of a black panther can still be discerned in certain light as the deposition of pigment is different in the pattern than in the background. There are also white panthers.
Despite its size, this largely nocturnal and arboreal predator is difficult to see in the wild. The best location to see leopards in Africa is in the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve in South Africa, where leopards are habituated to safari vehicles and are seen on a daily basis at very close range. In Asia, perhaps the best site is the Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, which has the world's highest density of wild leopards, but even here sightings are by no means guaranteed because more than half the park is closed off to the public, allowing the animals to thrive. The recently reopened Wilpattu National Park (also in Sri Lanka), is another good destination for leopard watching.
There are between 7-30 subspecies of leopard (one of them extinct) though not all of these are accepted as distinct by all authorities; below is a list of some of the related animals and their latin names.
As well as spotted leopards and black leopards there are several other rare mutations. One of the most interesting is the King Leopard (see below). Other color forms include red (erythristic) leopards with chocolate brown markings on a reddish background; buff leopards with orange rosettes on a cream background; pale cream leopards with pale markings and blue eyes, leopards without any distinct rosettes and leopards with striped underparts. In Harmsworth Natural History (1910), R Lydekker wrote of leopards with jaguar-like markings: The typical Indian leopard, as already mentioned, has the rosettes large and extending over most of the fore quarters. In the African leopard, on the other hand, the rosettes are everywhere smaller and more crowded, and on the shoulders and head break up into small solid spots. [...]. In ordinary leopards there are no black dots within the light area enclosed by the rosettes, but in some skins from Siam such dots are present, and thus serve to connect the leopard with the jaguar, in which they are normal.
A pseudo-melanistic leopard has a normal background colour, but its excessive markings have coalesced so that its back seems to be an unbroken expanse of black. In some specimens, the area of solid black extends down the flanks and limbs; only a few lateral streaks of golden-brown indicate the presence of normal background colour. 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.
In a paper about panthers and ounces of Asia, Pocock used a photo of a leopard skin from southern India; it had large black-rimmed blotches, each containing a number of dots and it resembled the pattern of a jaguar or clouded leopard. Another of Pocock's leopard skins from southern India had the normal rosettes broken up and fused and so much additional pigment that the animal looked like a black leopard streaked and speckled with yellow.
Most other colour morphs of leopards are known only from paintings or museum specimens. There have been very rare examples where the spots of a normal black leopard have coalesced to give a jet black leopard with no visible markings. Pseudo-melanism (abundism) occurs in leopards. The spots are more densely packed than normal and merge to largely obscure the background colour. They may form swirls and, in some places, solid black areas. Unlike a true black leopard the tawny background colour is visible in places. One pseudo-melanistic leopard had a tawny orange coat with coalescing rosettes and spots, but white belly with normal black spots (like a black-and-tan dog).
In Harmsworth Natural History (1910), R Lydekker described pseudo-melanistic leopard: There is, however, a peculiar dark phase in South Africa, a specimen of which was obtained in 1885 in hilly land covered with scrub-jungle, near Grahamstown. The ground-colour of this animal was a rich tawny, with an orange tinge; but the spots, instead of being of the usual rosette-like form, were nearly all small and solid, like those on the head of an ordinary leopard; while from the top of the head to near the root of the tail the spots became almost confluent, producing the appearance of a broad streak of black running down the back. A second skin had the black area embracing nearly the whole of the back and flanks, without showing any trace of the spots, while in those portions of the skin where the latter remained they were of the same form as in the first specimen. Two other specimens are known; the whole four having been obtained from the Albany district. These dark-coloured South African leopards differ from the black leopards of the northern and eastern parts of Africa and Asia in that while in the latter the rosette-like spots are always retained and clearly visible, in the former the rosettes are lost - as, indeed, is to a considerable extent often the case in ordinary African leopards - and all trace of spots disappears from the blacker portions of the skin.
Another pseudo-melanistic leopard skin was described in 1915 by Holdridge Ozro Collins who had purchased it in 1912. It had been killed in Malabar, India that same year. The wide black portion, which glistens like the sheen of silk velvet, extends from the top of the head to the extremity of the tail entirely free from any white or tawny hairs ... In the tiger, the stripes are black, of a uniform character, upon a tawny background, and they run in parallel lines from the centre of the back to the belly. In this skin, the stripes are almost golden yellow, without the uniformity and parallelism of the tiger characteristics, and they extend along the sides in labyrinthine graceful curls and circles, several inches below the wide shimmering black continuous course of the back. The extreme edges around the legs and belly are white and spotted like the skin of a leopard ... The skin is larger than that of a leopard but smaller than that of a full grown tiger.
In May 1936, the British Natural History Museum exhibited the mounted skin of an unusual Somali leopard. The pelt was richly decorated with an intricate pattern of swirling stripes, blotches, curls and fine-line traceries. This is different than a spotted leopard, but similar to a King Cheetah hence the modern cryptozoology term King Leopard. Between 1885 and 1934, six pseudo-melanistic leopards were recorded in the Albany and Grahamstown districts of South Africa. This indicated a mutation in the local leopard population. Other King Leopards have been recorded from Malabar in southwestern India. Shooting for trophies may have wiped out these populations.
Leopards are highly successful predators that hunt a wider variety of African prey than do other big cats from Africa, often feeding on insects, rodents, fish (as do domestic cats, animals with similar hunting techniques) as well as such larger game as antelope. Like domestic cats, but unlike the other great cats, they are known to jump from perches onto prey animals. Large size with the efficiency of the smaller cats makes them extremely dangerous to humans and dogs. Dogs in leopard country should be caged for protection from leopards. In much of its range in Africa leopards compete with animals such as the Spotted Hyena, wild dogs and the lion for prey, and it is not uncommon for them to be chased away from their own kills by other top predators.
Like domestic cats, leopards usually hunt at night or at dawn or dusk. They will stalk their prey before making a short run to catch it. They kill mostly by suffocation, by holding onto the animal's throat, though with smaller animals they may break the neck. Some leopards will carry their prey up a tree to avoid losing it to lions and hyenas. They have been observed carrying prey up to three times their own body weight into trees, demonstrating their great strength and power. Opportunistic hunters, leopards will hunt at any time of day or night if they come across suitable prey. Quite often they can make more than one kill in a day, in which case they cache the first kill while stalking their next victim.
In Africa, the traditional way to hunt leopards is to place a freshly killed animal carcass near the edge of a clearing as bait. The bait is put out at dusk in an area where leopards are known to live and hunt. Upon the arrival of the leopard, one or more spotlights are used to illuminate the beast, and it is shot in the most humane way possible.
The big cats, especially the spotted cats, are easy to confuse for those who see them in captivity or in photographs. The leopard is closely related to, and appears very similar to, the jaguar; it is less often confused with the cheetah. The ranges, habitats, and activities of the three cats make them easy to distinguish in the wild.
Since wild leopards live only in Africa and Asia and wild jaguars live only in the Americas, there is no possibility of confusing them in the wild. There are also visual markings that set them apart. Leopards do not have the spots within the rosettes that jaguars always have, and the jaguar's spots are larger than the leopard's (see the photographs in jaguar). The Amur leopard and the North Chinese leopard are occasional exceptions. The leopard is smaller and less stocky than the jaguar, although it is more heavyset than the cheetah.
Besides appearance, the leopard and jaguar have similar behavior patterns. Jaguars can adapt to a range of habitats from rainforest to ranchlands while leopards are even more adaptable ranging in from deserts and mountains, savanna and woodlands. The jaguar is native to the Americas, while the leopard is native to Asia and Africa.
The cheetah, although its range overlaps extensively with that of the leopard, is easily distinguished. The leopard is heavier, stockier, has a larger head in proportion to the body, and has rosettes rather than spots. The cheetah tends to run rather fast and goes much more quickly than the leopard. The cheetah also has dark 'teardrop'-like markings running down the sides of its face, whereas the leopard does not. Cheetahs are usually diurnal, while leopards are more active at night (nocturnal); cheetahs are also exclusively terrestrial (except when young), while leopards often climb trees.
Prior to the human-induced changes of the last few hundred years, Leopards were the most widely distributed of all felids other than the domestic cat: they were found through most of Africa (with the exception of the Sahara Desert), as well as parts of Asia Minor and the Middle East, India, Pakistan, China, Siberia, much of mainland South-East Asia, and the islands of Java, Zanzibar, and Sri Lanka.
The leopard is doing surprisingly well for a large predator. It is estimated that there are as many as 500,000 leopards in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. But like many other big cats, leopards are increasingly under threat of habitat loss and are facing increased hunting pressure. Because of their stealthy habits and camouflage, they can go undetected even in close proximity to human settlements. Despite the leopard's abilities, it is no match for habitat destruction and poachers, and several subspecies are endangered, namely, the Amur, Anatolian, Barbary, North Chinese, and South Arabian leopards.
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Despite the leopard's abilities, it is no match for habitat destruction and poachers, and several subspecies are endangered, namely, the Amur, Anatolian, Barbary, North Chinese, and South Arabian leopards. Variations of the name Mark: Marc, Marco (Italian), Marcos (Spanish). Because of their stealthy habits and camouflage, they can go undetected even in close proximity to human settlements. It dropped from fashion early the 20th century, but then in the 1960s it began a strong revival. But like many other big cats, leopards are increasingly under threat of habitat loss and are facing increased hunting pressure. The widely known American author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) took his pen name not from Mark but from an expression used by Mississippi riverboat pilots. It is estimated that there are as many as 500,000 leopards in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. The name was introduced in England about the same time, but it was seldom used until the 1800s, when it was adopted in Britain and the United States. The leopard is doing surprisingly well for a large predator. In the thirteenth century, the Venetian Marco Polo visited the court of Kublai Khan and brought back the first accurate description of China. Prior to the human-induced changes of the last few hundred years, Leopards were the most widely distributed of all felids other than the domestic cat: they were found through most of Africa (with the exception of the Sahara Desert), as well as parts of Asia Minor and the Middle East, India, Pakistan, China, Siberia, much of mainland South-East Asia, and the islands of Java, Zanzibar, and Sri Lanka. The name became popular among Christians because of Mark the Evangelist. Cheetahs are usually diurnal, while leopards are more active at night (nocturnal); cheetahs are also exclusively terrestrial (except when young), while leopards often climb trees. A symbolic meaning of the word can also be derived from ancient contexts. The cheetah also has dark 'teardrop'-like markings running down the sides of its face, whereas the leopard does not. A similar form is Marcellus, or "little Mark", which gives names such as the French Marcel and the Italian Marcello. The cheetah tends to run rather fast and goes much more quickly than the leopard. It is usually said to mean "martial" or "great warrior". The leopard is heavier, stockier, has a larger head in proportion to the body, and has rosettes rather than spots. The name originates from Latin: a Roman clan name (Marcius) and first name (Marcus) associated with the Roman god of war, Mars. The cheetah, although its range overlaps extensively with that of the leopard, is easily distinguished. . The jaguar is native to the Americas, while the leopard is native to Asia and Africa. Mark is a common male given name, and a name for many terms and places. Jaguars can adapt to a range of habitats from rainforest to ranchlands while leopards are even more adaptable ranging in from deserts and mountains, savanna and woodlands. It is illegal for a boat to touch any mark on the racecourse. Besides appearance, the leopard and jaguar have similar behavior patterns. A mark in sailing is a permanent or temporary buoy that marks the course in a yacht race. The leopard is smaller and less stocky than the jaguar, although it is more heavyset than the cheetah. If they catch the ball cleanly, the referee will give that player a free-kick on the spot where they caught the ball. The Amur leopard and the North Chinese leopard are occasional exceptions. As they catch the ball they shout MARK at the top of their voice. Leopards do not have the spots within the rosettes that jaguars always have, and the jaguar's spots are larger than the leopard's (see the photographs in jaguar). In Rugby Union, a player can only make the mark when they catch a high ball inside their own 22 metre or in-goal area. There are also visual markings that set them apart. A player taking a mark is entitled to a free kick, from behind the point at which the ball was caught. Since wild leopards live only in Africa and Asia and wild jaguars live only in the Americas, there is no possibility of confusing them in the wild. For a mark to be paid the ball must not have touched the ground or another player. The ranges, habitats, and activities of the three cats make them easy to distinguish in the wild. A mark in Australian Rules Football is a "clean" catch from a kick by another player, from either team. The leopard is closely related to, and appears very similar to, the jaguar; it is less often confused with the cheetah. To mark in association football (or soccer) is to have a player follow an opposing striker or other prominent player, and attempt to prevent them getting control of the ball and/or scoring. The big cats, especially the spotted cats, are easy to confuse for those who see them in captivity or in photographs. Mark frequency - in radio transmission; see frequency-shift keying. Upon the arrival of the leopard, one or more spotlights are used to illuminate the beast, and it is shot in the most humane way possible. Mark (computing) - a delimiter at the beginning or end of a transmission sequence. The bait is put out at dusk in an area where leopards are known to live and hunt. Marks is a surname. In Africa, the traditional way to hunt leopards is to place a freshly killed animal carcass near the edge of a clearing as bait. This usually comes in the form of an "X" and was quite common during the 19th and early 20th centures in the United States. Quite often they can make more than one kill in a day, in which case they cache the first kill while stalking their next victim. An illiterate signatory of legal documents can make his mark in place of a written signature. Opportunistic hunters, leopards will hunt at any time of day or night if they come across suitable prey. When a trademark is used as a brand name to identify a product, or a service mark is used to identify the producer of services, either type is commonly referred to as a mark. They have been observed carrying prey up to three times their own body weight into trees, demonstrating their great strength and power. Hence, a professional wrestling "mark" -- the slang term for a fan who believes what they see is legitimate. Some leopards will carry their prey up a tree to avoid losing it to lions and hyenas. A "mark" - the slang term for the victim of a con game or as an intended victim of an assassination. They kill mostly by suffocation, by holding onto the animal's throat, though with smaller animals they may break the neck. The name was probably taken from the German above. They will stalk their prey before making a short run to catch it. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Like domestic cats, leopards usually hunt at night or at dawn or dusk. R. In much of its range in Africa leopards compete with animals such as the Spotted Hyena, wild dogs and the lion for prey, and it is not uncommon for them to be chased away from their own kills by other top predators. R. Dogs in leopard country should be caged for protection from leopards. "The Mark" - colloquial name for the fictional land of the Riddermark, Rohan in J. Large size with the efficiency of the smaller cats makes them extremely dangerous to humans and dogs. Mark is a King of Cornwall in Arthurian legend. Like domestic cats, but unlike the other great cats, they are known to jump from perches onto prey animals. Mark or Marcq, a village and a river in Belgium, see Mark (Dender). Leopards are highly successful predators that hunt a wider variety of African prey than do other big cats from Africa, often feeding on insects, rodents, fish (as do domestic cats, animals with similar hunting techniques) as well as such larger game as antelope. Mark, a river in the Netherlands and Belgium, see Mark (Dintel). Shooting for trophies may have wiped out these populations. Examples are the Altmark, Neumark, and Mark Brandenburg. Other King Leopards have been recorded from Malabar in southwestern India. It was ruled by a markgraf, or "Margrave". This indicated a mutation in the local leopard population. See also the English "Margravate". Between 1885 and 1934, six pseudo-melanistic leopards were recorded in the Albany and Grahamstown districts of South Africa. In the German, Mark denotes a border area of the Holy Roman empire. This is different than a spotted leopard, but similar to a King Cheetah hence the modern cryptozoology term King Leopard. A Mark or "County" - medieval state in Westphalia, part of the Holy Roman Empire. The pelt was richly decorated with an intricate pattern of swirling stripes, blotches, curls and fine-line traceries. Mark Hundred - hundred (an administrative division) in Westrogorhia, Sweden. In May 1936, the British Natural History Museum exhibited the mounted skin of an unusual Somali leopard. Mark Municipality - a municipality in Sweden. The skin is larger than that of a leopard but smaller than that of a full grown tiger.. Marks, Mississippi - a town in the United States. The extreme edges around the legs and belly are white and spotted like the skin of a leopard .. colloquial term widespread in Commonwealth English for a grade awarded to students' work. In this skin, the stripes are almost golden yellow, without the uniformity and parallelism of the tiger characteristics, and they extend along the sides in labyrinthine graceful curls and circles, several inches below the wide shimmering black continuous course of the back. Convertible Mark - the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the tiger, the stripes are black, of a uniform character, upon a tawny background, and they run in parallel lines from the centre of the back to the belly. Mark - a former unit of account in England. The wide black portion, which glistens like the sheen of silk velvet, extends from the top of the head to the extremity of the tail entirely free from any white or tawny hairs .. Markka or Finnish mark - the name of the former currency in Finland, now replaced by the euro. It had been killed in Malabar, India that same year. Estonian mark — the name of the former currency in Estonia, replaced by the Estonian kroon in 1927. Another pseudo-melanistic leopard skin was described in 1915 by Holdridge Ozro Collins who had purchased it in 1912. East German mark or Ostmark - the name of the former currency in German Democratic Republic, replaced by the Deutsche Mark upon that state's unification with the Federal Republic of Germany. These dark-coloured South African leopards differ from the black leopards of the northern and eastern parts of Africa and Asia in that while in the latter the rosette-like spots are always retained and clearly visible, in the former the rosettes are lost - as, indeed, is to a considerable extent often the case in ordinary African leopards - and all trace of spots disappears from the blacker portions of the skin.. Deutsche Mark - the name of the former currency of Germany, now replaced by the euro. Two other specimens are known; the whole four having been obtained from the Albany district. Goldmark - the currency of the German Empire. A second skin had the black area embracing nearly the whole of the back and flanks, without showing any trace of the spots, while in those portions of the skin where the latter remained they were of the same form as in the first specimen. Mark - an archaic European unit of weight whose use for precious metal gave rise to the currencies. The ground-colour of this animal was a rich tawny, with an orange tinge; but the spots, instead of being of the usual rosette-like form, were nearly all small and solid, like those on the head of an ordinary leopard; while from the top of the head to near the root of the tail the spots became almost confluent, producing the appearance of a broad streak of black running down the back. Mark of Britain. In Harmsworth Natural History (1910), R Lydekker described pseudo-melanistic leopard: There is, however, a peculiar dark phase in South Africa, a specimen of which was obtained in 1885 in hilly land covered with scrub-jungle, near Grahamstown. "Mark of the Beast" refers to the forced use of the alleged name of the Antichrist or the presumed "Number of the Beast" (666), which it is claimed will be required to be imposed upon all persons as a condition of being able to engage in commerce as noted in the Book of Revelation of the Christian Bible. One pseudo-melanistic leopard had a tawny orange coat with coalescing rosettes and spots, but white belly with normal black spots (like a black-and-tan dog). Gospel of Mark - the gospel of Mark the Evangelist. Unlike a true black leopard the tawny background colour is visible in places. Tau is an ancient symbolic equivalent for the word "mark". They may form swirls and, in some places, solid black areas. Mark Warner, former Governor of Virginia. The spots are more densely packed than normal and merge to largely obscure the background colour. Mark Wahlberg, actor. Pseudo-melanism (abundism) occurs in leopards. Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens, American author. There have been very rare examples where the spots of a normal black leopard have coalesced to give a jet black leopard with no visible markings. Mark Spitz, Olympic swimmer. Most other colour morphs of leopards are known only from paintings or museum specimens. Mark Shuttleworth, South African entrepreneur. Another of Pocock's leopard skins from southern India had the normal rosettes broken up and fused and so much additional pigment that the animal looked like a black leopard streaked and speckled with yellow. Mark Rothko, expressionist painter. In a paper about panthers and ounces of Asia, Pocock used a photo of a leopard skin from southern India; it had large black-rimmed blotches, each containing a number of dots and it resembled the pattern of a jaguar or clouded leopard. Marco Polo, Venetian explorer. The face and underparts are paler and dappled like those of ordinary spotted leopards. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, political blogger. 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. Mark McGwire, American baseball player. In some specimens, the area of solid black extends down the flanks and limbs; only a few lateral streaks of golden-brown indicate the presence of normal background colour. Mark Latham, Australian politician. A pseudo-melanistic leopard has a normal background colour, but its excessive markings have coalesced so that its back seems to be an unbroken expanse of black. Mark Knopfler, British musician. In ordinary leopards there are no black dots within the light area enclosed by the rosettes, but in some skins from Siam such dots are present, and thus serve to connect the leopard with the jaguar, in which they are normal.. Mark Johnson, American professor of philosophy. [...]. Mark Hamill, actor known for role as Luke Skywalker. In the African leopard, on the other hand, the rosettes are everywhere smaller and more crowded, and on the shoulders and head break up into small solid spots. Mark Felt, American FBI official known as "Deep Throat". In Harmsworth Natural History (1910), R Lydekker wrote of leopards with jaguar-like markings: The typical Indian leopard, as already mentioned, has the rosettes large and extending over most of the fore quarters. W. Other color forms include red (erythristic) leopards with chocolate brown markings on a reddish background; buff leopards with orange rosettes on a cream background; pale cream leopards with pale markings and blue eyes, leopards without any distinct rosettes and leopards with striped underparts. Mark Farner, American musician. One of the most interesting is the King Leopard (see below). Mark Dayton, US Senator from Minnesota. As well as spotted leopards and black leopards there are several other rare mutations. Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur. There are between 7-30 subspecies of leopard (one of them extinct) though not all of these are accepted as distinct by all authorities; below is a list of some of the related animals and their latin names. Mark David Chapman, assassin of John Lennon. . Marc Chagall, artist. The recently reopened Wilpattu National Park (also in Sri Lanka), is another good destination for leopard watching. Mark Antony, Roman politician and general. In Asia, perhaps the best site is the Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, which has the world's highest density of wild leopards, but even here sightings are by no means guaranteed because more than half the park is closed off to the public, allowing the animals to thrive. Marc Andreessen, technology entrepreneur. The best location to see leopards in Africa is in the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve in South Africa, where leopards are habituated to safari vehicles and are seen on a daily basis at very close range. Mark is located. Despite its size, this largely nocturnal and arboreal predator is difficult to see in the wild. Mark is said to have traveled to Italy, and the name has always been popular there, especially in Venice, where the famous church of St. There are also white panthers. Mark the Evangelist, one of the gospel writers of the life of Jesus. This results in a chiefly black coat, though the spots of a black panther can still be discerned in certain light as the deposition of pigment is different in the pattern than in the background. These have mutations that cause them to produce more black pigment (eumelanin) than orange-tan pigment (pheomelanin). A black panther is a melanistic leopard (or melanistic jaguar). Early naturalists distinguished between leopards and panthers not by color (a common misconception), but by the length of the tail - panthers having longer tails than pards (leopards). Elsewhere in the world a panther is a leopard. In North America panther means puma and in South America a panther is a jaguar. In fact, a "panther" can be any of several species of large felid. Originally, it was thought that a leopard was a hybrid between a lion and a panther, and the leopard's common name derives from this belief; leo is the Latin for lion, and pard is an old term meaning panther. The spots tend to be smaller on the head, and larger with pale centres on the body. Most leopards are light tan or fawn with black spots, but their coat color is highly variable. The leopard is a sexually dimorphic species, with females being typically around two-thirds the size of males. They range in size from one to almost two metres long, and weigh between 30 and 70 kg. Leopards (Panthera pardus) are one of the four 'big cats' of the genus Panthera. Leopard is also the codename for the 10.5 version of Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system, following Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther and Tiger. It was replaced by the Leopard 2. The Leopard tank was another German-designed main battle tank that first entered service in 1965. Leopard was the common name for the VK1602 light tank from Germany during World War II. Zanzibar Leopard, Panthera pardus adersi (extinct). Sri Lanka Leopard*, Panthera pardus kotiya (endangered). South Arabian Leopard, Panthera pardus nimr (critically endangered). Sinai Leopard, Panthera pardus jarvisi. North China Leopard*, Panthera pardus japonensis (endangered). Java Leopard*, Panthera pardus meas (endangered). Iran Leopard*, Panthera pardus saxicolor. Indo-Chinese Leopard*, Panthera pardus delacouri. Indian Leopard*, Panthera pardus fusca (lower risk, least concern). Barbary Leopard, Panthera pardus panthera (critically endangered) Indian Leopard . Anatolian Leopard, Panthera pardus tulliana (critically endangered or possibly extinct). Amur Leopard*, Panthera pardus orientalis (critically endangered). African Leopard*, Panthera pardus pardus (lower risk, least concern). |