History Of Leopard May Not Exist

"Phylogeography And Spatial Modeling Of The Leopard (Panthera Pardus) I" By Corey Anco

A major grouping of animals that includes crustaceans, insects and arachnids. All arthropods have paired jointed limbs and a hard external skeleton (exoskeleton).

Leopards show me pictures of baby animals a great diversity in coat color and rosettes patterns. In general, the coat color varies from pale yellow to deep gold or tawny, and is patterned with black rosettes. The head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Coat color and patterning are broadly associated with habitat type. Their rosettes are circular in East Africa but tend to be squarer in southern Africa and larger in Asian populations. Their yellow coat tends to be more pale and cream colored in desert populations, more gray in colder climates, and of a darker golden hue in rainforest habitats. Overall, the fur under the belly tends to be lighter coloured and of a softer, downy type. Solid black spots in place of open rosettes are generally seen along the face, limbs and underbelly.

Once killed, the carcass is protected from scavengers by dragging it into thicket, or by hoisting it into a tree; a carcass up to twice the leopards mass can be lifted with ease. It will return repeatedly, for up to six days, to feed on the hidden carcass. Hunting success relies mainly on an extremely well-developed sense of sight and hearing while scent is of little importance. During hot daylight hours leopards rest in dense cover, between rocks, in caves, old burrows or high up on the branch of a tree. In early mornings they tend to lie and view their surroundings from sunny spots on rocks or river banks.

In many parts of its range, the importance of domestic animals in their diet is also evident with dogs, goats and cattle forming a large proportion of their diet (Mukherjee et al. 2001) sometimes even dominating the prey items in the diet (Athreya et al. 2014, Shehzad et al. 2014). Dogs have been reported as important prey for Leopards (Edgaonkar and Chellam 2002, Athreya et al. 2014). Overall studies on diet of Leopards are very scant across its Asian range.

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