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Close-up of a sitting Amur leopard

Leopard

Its muscular yet graceful stealth makes the leopard a prize sighting on safari, but it's not just spots that make for super-effective camouflage. The black form can be just as elusive in the forest, remaining unseen only a few metres away, the twitch of a tail the only giveaway to its resting place on a tree branch. Leopards are skilled climbers, carrying carcasses heavier than themselves up trees and descending head first. There are recognised subspecies living in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and may be others as yet unidentified. Leopards were once found from the British Isles to Japan.

Did you know?
A leopard can be individually identified by the pattern of spots on its coat.

Scientific name: Panthera pardus

Rank: Species

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Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Leopard taxa

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

The Leopard can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Asia, China, Himalayas, Indian subcontinent, Russia. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Leopard distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

Conservation Status

Near Threatened

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

Population trend: Decreasing

Year assessed: 2008

Classified by: IUCN 3.1

About

The leopard ( /ˈlɛpərd/), Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its range of distribution has decreased radically because of hunting and loss of habitat. It is now chiefly found in sub-Saharan Africa; there are also fragmented populations in the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. Because of its declining range and population, it is listed as a "Near Threatened" species on the IUCN Red List.

Compared to other members of the Felidae family, the leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. It is similar in appearance to the jaguar, but is smaller and more slightly built. Its fur is marked with rosettes similar to those of the jaguar, but the leopard's rosettes are smaller and more densely packed, and do not usually have central spots as the jaguars do. Both leopards and jaguars that are melanistic are known as black panthers.

The species' success in the wild is in part due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its adaptability to habitats, its ability to run at speeds approaching 58 kilometres per hour (36 mph), its unequaled ability to climb trees even when carrying a heavy carcass, and its notorious ability for stealth. The leopard consumes virtually any animal that it can hunt down and catch. Its habitat ranges from rainforest to desert terrains.

Read more at Wikipedia

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Sounds

BBC News about Leopard

Video collections

Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.

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