Panthera pardus
The Spanish translation for Leopards is Leopardos
There are many types of leopards living throughout Africa and Asia.
Leopard Home: Asia Minor, India, Southeast Asia, Himalayas, Tibet, China, Siberia, and Africa. Leopards live in woodlands, forests, rain forest, brush, grasslands and rocky terrain.
Food: Birds, hare, hyraxes, rodents, small and medium sized antelope, jackals, dogs, primates, bush pigs, and fish.
Size (length with tail & weight): 5 to 8.5 feet
55 to 160 pounds
Life Span in the Wild: 10 to 12 years
Life Span in Captivity: 20 years or more
Leopard Trivia:
- The Leopard's leg and neck muscles are very
strong. They are able to carry food up to three times their weight up
into trees.
- A leopard's spots keep it hidden in the many different
places they live.
- Black leopards are some times called black
panthers. Even though they appear black, in the sun light their darker
black spots appear.
- Leopards can jump 10 feet straight into the air and
they can leap a distance of 20 feet horizontally.
- Leopards look very similar to the Jaguar. The Jaguar is stockier and heavier than the Leopard. The Jaguar also has a smaller black spot with in the larger dark brown spots all over its body.
Leopards are an Endangered Species in Many Areas
The Persian Leopard and Leopards in the Middle East are almost extinct. Other leopards are also becoming rare.
Leopards are losing their homes to man's buildings, as are the lions and other wild cats. As the buildings are created, the natural woods and grasses are destroyed. In the process the food that Leopards hunt, becomes harder to find.
Leopards also suffer death from illegal hunters. These poachers kill leopards for their beautiful fur.
The European Zoos are one of the groups of people trying to save the Leopard from extinction.
Our Meet the Animals section includes research from the following websites:
The Austin Zoo's website: www.austinzoo.org.
Spanish translations courtesy of the Austin Zoo.
Rolling Hills Refuge Wildlife Conservation Center http://www.rhrwildlife.com/animbot.htm
The Birmingham Zoo http://www.birminghamzoo.com/
The WWW Virtual Library: Zoos http://zoonet.home.mindspring.com/www_virtual_lib/zoos.html
Photographs in Our Meet the Animals Section from PrintMaster Platinum v8.0 software.
Research on farm animals came primarily from http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/