Focus on the Leopard

Name: Leopard

Scientific name: (Panthera pardus)

Description: Powerful, graceful and arguably one of the most beautiful of all the large cats, the elusive leopard is a master of stealth and survival. By far the strongest climber, it can haul prey twice its own body weight up into a tree where it can feast without disturbance from other predators.

Social structure: A life of seclusion is the way of the leopard and they tend to avoid one another. Highly territorial, their range overlaps that of their neighbours and they only tolerate a trespasser into its home turf to mate. Leopards mark their territory with urine and leave claw marks on trees. They are constantly on the move within their range and know each others location from these markings and their low, rasping calls.
During the day they sleep in caves, rock shelters, draped over tree branches or hidden in dense vegetation. Leopards are solitary and highly territorial, living alone except in the case of a female with cubs. Constantly on the move within their own territory, they never spend more than a few days in one spot.

Habitat: Leopards occur in a wide variet of habitats, ranging from subtropical forests to deserts. They prefer riverine forests and fairly dense veld, occuring mainly in game reserves and mountainous areas of southern Africa.

Feeding: Leopards prey on a wide variety of creatures ranging from insects, rodents, birds, fish, dassies, monkeys and baboons to large antelope more than double their own body weight. Efficient and stealthy hunters, they may kill more than their immediate needs and ‘store’ their quarry in trees for several days. Only hyaenas rival the leopard in their readiness to gorge on rotten meat.

Breeding: Females have litters of two or three cubs after a gestation of about 100 days. Leopard cubs are kept hidden for the first 2 months and are suckled for at least 3 months. The mother takes them hunting when they are 4 months old and they may stay together as a family group for up to two years. As cubs are weaned they learn to hunt small animals.