Porcupine parents protect their 2 babies from a leopard (video)

 

The parents defending their babies in this video do so with great effectiveness. Porcupine quills are deadly. There are many cases of leopards and for example lions dying after being harpooned by porcupine quills because they tried to attack the animal. 

Once the quills have been inserted into a predator like a leopard they are released from the porcupine and the barbs on the quill means that movement by the leopard forces the quill deeper into their body and they are impossible to extract. They can cause an infection.

A study published on the science.org website tells us that "a porcupine quill needs only about half the force of a hypodermic needle" to pierce skin. Interestingly, they studied porcupine quills to see if they could improve the design of medical instruments!

The tiny barbs (top) coating the tips of the quills from North American porcupines (bottom) make it more difficult to extract a quill from flesh, but they also help the quill penetrate the flesh. Image: WOO KYUNG CHO on science.org.

Porcupine quills are large stiff hairs. The North American porcupine has about 30,000 quills. Each one is adorned with between 700 and 800 barbs along the 4 mm of the tip. The barbs help the quill remain embedded in the victim's skin.

Barbed quills required about half the penetration force of quills that do not have barbs. And, as mentioned, 56% of the force needed for a hypodermic needle to be inserted into human skin.

The barbs mean that they are four times harder to pull out once they are embedded. The barbs located within the 1 mm tip of the quill contributed to about 50% of the pull-out resistance.

Porcupines do not shoot their quills at predators but they detached easily when touched. I have seen many pictures of large wild cats such as pumas with quills in their snouts. When that happens, they can't do a thing in terms of predation. The puma with a face full of quills is going to starve to death. This is why porcupines are very dangerous animals to wild cat predators and which is why the defensive measures put up by the parents and the video are so effective.

What the bible says about cats

The bible says nothing about domestic cats. Nada. Zilch. Some wild cats are mentioned. Dogs are poo-pooed.

A search for 'domestic cat' on the openbible.info website produced nothing at all. I know this from previous searches. The domestic cat is not mentioned in the bible at all. Other animals are. The dog is. The domestic cat, no. Wild cats are sometimes referenced but rarely; such as the leopard and lion below. P.S. The dog is mentioned over 40 times in the bible but nearly always in a derogatory and contemptuous manner.

What the bible says about cats. Image: MikeB

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, 

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

Search for 'domestic cat' produced no references in the bible as mentioned twice already!! A search for 'cat' produced the above. 'Cats' produced the following (a reference to the leopard):

Daniel 7.6: After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

 The lion mentioned on search for 'lion'. There are other mentions.

Psalm 104:21: The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.

Why isn't the domestic cat mentioned in the bible? The Bible Research Today website says this:

"The most common explanation for the omission of the cat within Hebrew biblical texts is that it was a reaction by monotheistic Israel against the Egyptian practice of worshipping cats (or gods that were fashioned in the form of cats)."

In an earlier article I wrote years ago I suggested that the domestic cat was irrelevant to the topics discussed in the bible and was not mentioned as a result. A common-sense viewpoint.

When it comes to the bible forget about the domestic cat which was very much part of the lives of some Jews at the time of Christ (plausible and reasonable suggestion). Perhaps they were quite rare among Jews. 

The domestic cat existed at that time as the Egyptians had domestic cats for thousands of years before Christ. There were probably fewer pet cats than pet dogs among the Jews.  Today the Jews are generally very kind to stray cats. There are lots of them in Israel. Too many actually! Ironic that.

Remember too that the bible was written over the course of almost a century after Jesus' death. That's a factor. It is an historical account.

Leopard attacks cyclist in cycle lane

Although it is not clear what species of cat this is, it must be a leopard judging by its size and the markings indicate this too. Although the image quality is not great. The attack took place on the on Dehradun-Rishikesh Highway, India and both cat and human were lucky to come away unharmed.

Cyclist attacked by a leopard, but the leopard rapidly retreats when it realises that the attack was not working. Screenshot.

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of this video is that the leopard failed in their attack and quickly retreated and disappeared into the jungle. 

The cat regarded the cyclist and the bike together as a prey animal obviously. When they hit the cyclist and the man at the same time it seems that the cat realised that this was not viable and gave up immediately. 

The attack must have been instinctive and then immediately on making contact the leopard change its mind sensing that the outcome may lead to injury to them. 

I think that can only be the assessment otherwise why would the cat give up so quickly and disappear even before the man retaliated?

Location:

Leopards move on to land reserved for new cheetah arrivals in India

You may have heard that the Indian authorities want to reintroduce the cheetah into India after they became extinct in that country in 1952 due to persecution by hunters, diminishing prey and a loss of habitat. It is a brave policy to reintroduce the cheetah into India perhaps primarily because there might not be enough space for them. They are fussy about where they live as they like open grasslands and scrub forests and there is not much of it in India.

The beautiful cheetah. Leopards have moved onto land reserved for new cheetah arrivals in India. It has caused some consternation among the rangers.

They've chosen the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary a.k.a. Kuno National Park. And sadly, their efforts to bring cheetahs back to India for the first time in 70 years have been undermined by native leopards as they have moved into the enclosure set aside for the new arrivals.

The plan was to bring eight cheetahs from Namibia in Africa which is the place where most of them currently exist on the planet. But park rangers at the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, have been forced to jump into action having discovered that six leopards invaded the 5 km² fenced area of the National Park allocated to the cheetahs.

The rangers have managed to trap and tranquilize three leopards and moved them to a different area of the park which is located 60 miles west of Shivpuri in central India. The three remaining leopards have yet to be trapped and the rangers are becoming nervous.

Amritanshu Singh, who is in charge of the enclosure, said: "The camera traps show us the path the leopards are taking and where they are. We have set up leghold traps, which do not hurt the animal but set off an alarm telling us they are inside the cage".

The last cheetahs in India were hunted down by a maharajah following decades of declining numbers. Narendra Modi's government was very proud in declaring the reintroduction of cheetahs into his country after a deal with the authorities in Namibia.

The plan is to import more from South Africa over the forthcoming five years to a maximum of 50. Wildlife campaigners have questioned the practicalities of this project and whether the conditions are right for cheetahs to return to India. They have described the project as a "vanity project".

The authorities have prepared for the reintroduction of the fastest land animal by moving about 100 deer into the area so that they have access to prey in what will be initially unfamiliar surroundings.

They fear that the cheetahs may struggle to acclimatise in part because they would have to compete against the big cats. They mean tigers and leopards. I don't know whether tigers are in this part of the park, probably not. I suspect that cheetahs will purposefully avoid leopards but it will curtail their movements.

Singh said: "African leopards do not typically like cheetahs so it may be the same with Indian leopards, who, moreover, have never seen a cheetah in their lives. It will be interesting to see their reaction."

2 Indian leopard stories highlighting human-leopard conflict

Here are two common leopard stories from India which highlight the catastrophic human-leopard conflict in that vast country. They also remind us of the constant pressure on the leopard for habitat as it is being eroded year-on-year through human population growth and commercial activity. The leopard is being pushed off India. 

Leopard enters classroom in India. Screenshot.

There are countless conflicts between people and the leopard in India every year. The leopard invariably loses although, rarely a person is killed. The leopard becomes habituated to human settlements which endangers them and of course the people who lived in those settlements. Or, more likely, the people feel endangered. My interpretation of the news stories is that the leopard is almost invariably killed or if lucky tranquillised and removed. But the leopard often resorts to night-time activities to avoid humans.

Note: Below are an embedded video and tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Classroom

The first story concerns a leopard who wandered into a school and attacked a student. It seems that the student was the right size as a prey animal for a leopard. They do tend to attack kids (see the second story below). The student suffered minor injuries. He ran out of the classroom when he saw the leopard hiding there. The leopard was judged to be five years old. It was tranquilized and captured after an 11-hour effort. The officials say that the leopard strayed from a patch of forest nearby. This highlights the proximity of the leopard habitat to the human habitat. The video above shows the leopard wandering around the classroom.

Woman grabs her son from a leopard

A woman living in Madhya Pradesh tracked a leopard which had grabbed her eight year old son in its jaws and carried him off. She first put her other children in a safe place and then rushed into the forest to chase the leopard. The reports are rather vague but she tracked down the leopard after about 1 km and managed to grab her son from the leopard and bring him home. Villagers by that time had also intervened and chased away the leopard with sticks. The incident took place last Sunday in Badi Jharia village, in the buffer zone of the Sanjay Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district, located over 500 from the state capital Bhopal.

Kiran the mother who fought a leopard. Screenshot.

Here is the tweet:

काल के हाथों से बच्चे को निकाल कर नया जीवन देने वाली मां को प्रणाम। प्रदेश के सीधी जिले में तेंदुए का एक किमी दूर पीछा कर मां अपने कलेजे के टुकड़े के लिए उससे भिड़ गईं। मौत से टकराने का ये साहस ममता का ही अद्भुत स्वरूप है। मां श्रीमती किरण बैगा का प्रदेशवासियों की तरफ से अभिनंदन।

Translation per Google (not great :-? )

Salutations to the mother who took out the child from the hands of time and gave her a new lease of life. The mother chased the leopard a km away in Sidhi district of the state and confronted her for a piece of her liver. This courage to hit death is a wonderful form of Mamta. Greetings to Mother Smt.

काल के हाथों से बच्चे को निकाल कर नया जीवन देने वाली मां को प्रणाम। प्रदेश के सीधी जिले में तेंदुए का एक किमी दूर पीछा कर मां अपने कलेजे के टुकड़े के लिए उससे भिड़ गईं। मौत से टकराने का ये साहस ममता का ही अद्भुत स्वरूप है। मां श्रीमती किरण बैगा का प्रदेशवासियों की तरफ से अभिनंदन। pic.twitter.com/46Uuc0srx0

— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) November 30, 2021

The brave woman's name is Kiran. An Indian new website, NDTV, reports that she was sitting beside a fire with her three children to keep them warm inside her hut. The leopard appeared and instantly caught hold of her son Rahul in its jaws and dragged him away. The mother kept her cool. She tried to scare the leopard away with a stick and also raised the alarm. It seems that the leopard became scared and left the child. When she took her child into her arms the cat attacked her. She overpowered the cat. Luckily the boy received relatively minor injuries. They were taken to a primary healthcare unit for treatment. The forestry department agreed to bear the expenses of their treatment.

Should 'leopard' be capitalized?

No, the word "leopard" should not be capitalised because it is a common noun but there are some exceptions which I discuss below when the word becames part of an individual cat's name. 

None of the wild cat species should be capitalised including the lion and tiger. It's interesting, however, that you still see the names of wild cat species sometimes capitalised. 

I believe that there was a convention perhaps a hundred years ago when these nouns were capitalized. Grammar, after all, is an artificial convention. It is not an absolute set of rules set in stone. 

Humans decide what is and what isn't acceptable in terms of grammar and the current thinking is that the word "leopard" should not be capitalised and neither should any other name of the wild cat species. 

Sometimes, however, you will see a lion that has been named because they are famous i.e. 'Cecil the Lion'. Clearly, the whole name should be capitalised as all names are. The whole name is 'Cecil the Lion'. The intervening 'the' should stay in lowercase.

Sometimes man-eating leopards have been named such as the the Leopard of Rudraprayag; a leopard reputed to have killed over 125 people. It was eventually killed by hunter and author Jim Corbett who has a tiger reserve named after him in the north of India.

The cat has been given a name and the full name is as stated. In this case the word 'leopard' is capitalized as it is part of a proper name (proper noun). Once again the intervening 'of' is in lowercase.

Amur leopard. Photo in the public domain.

And when there is a prefix which tells you where the cat is from, the pre-fix should be capitalized as is the case for: Amur leopard and Siberian tiger for instance.

Picture of a leopard who befriended a cow in defiance of usual instincts

In defiance of natural instincts, this female leopard crept through a sugarcane on an October night to find a cow tied up in a field. It's the way the villagers kept their livestock in this community on the banks of India's Dhadhar River at a village called Antoli. The cat did not harm the cow. The villagers were worried and asked the Forest Department to remove the leopard to a sanctuary nearby. 

The trappers turned up on what they saw shocked them. After several attempts to capture the leopard she returned to the area nightly. Sometimes many times during a single night. But she did not return as a predator but to her cow that it seems she regarded as her mother. She came for a cuddle.

Female leopard befriends a cow for months. Image: Believed now to be in the public domain.

She approached the cow cautiously and rubbed her head against the cow's head and then settled down against her body. In response, the cow would lick her leopard friend. She started at her head and neck and then the legs and any other area of the body that she could get to. The leopard clearly enjoyed the experience.

RELATED: Interspecies friendship: donkey and domestic cat

If the cow was asleep when the leopard arrived she would gently be woken up with a nuzzle to the leg. The leopard then lay down by her side. The leopard ignored cattle standing nearby. This happened for two months and the leopard showed up at around eight in the evening and stayed with the cow until the first signs of sunrise.

The villagers heard about this and were no longer worried about the need to capture the leopard. The benefit was that the leopard was preying on pigs, jackals and monkeys which meant that their crops improved. The cat stuck around for several weeks. On the last night when she was seen with the cow she came nine times before disappearing forever.

RELATED: Rooster play-fights with domestic cat

It is suggested that this female leopard had just become independent and was looking for a home range but being a young adult sought companionship and a mother. Perhaps her mother had been killed and she was not yet independent and therefore needed mothering until she felt able to be independent to find her own home range. When she reached adulthood and confidence she moved on. Nonetheless, the relationship was striking and counter to all the natural instincts and stories that we see and read about.

What wild cats are black?

No wild cat species (as a species) is black. Sometimes individual wild cats of some species are black or dark charcoal because of a genetic mutation resulting in melanism. The classic melanistic wild cat is the black jaguar called the black panther. The puma can be black too and so can the bobcat, the serval, the leopard and Geoffroy's cat. These names come out of my head. I have probably forgotten some.

Black leopard (melanistic). Pic: Pixabay.

But the point is that the answer is NONE. It is just that some individuals do end up black against the usual colour of the species concerned because of this genetic mutation.

SEE SOME BLACK PANTHER PICTURES.

Melanism affects many animals of many species, not just some wild cats. For instance melanistic leopards are quite common. They are sometimes bred in zoos. Black leopards are caused by a recessive gene. They are less fertile than normal leopards according to Sarah Hartwell, a cat genetics expert.

Black leopards in captivity may be more highly strung than normal leopards because they are bred to entertain the public and in doing that they become inbred. This affects their mental health. 

As leopards are nocturnal being black does not impede hunting but probably has the opposite effect. Melanistic leopards are also called black panthers.

The Elusive Caucasian Leopard

Other names for this subspecies of leopard are: Central Asian leopard, North Persian leopard, Persian leopard and West Asian leopard.  Quite an array of names and talking about names, the scientific name of this species of wild cat is in a confused state apparently but this is what it is currently listed as: Panthera pardus ssp. saxicolor. This subspecies is the largest of all the leopards.



The IUCN Red List states that the total population across all countries where it exists is an estimated 871-1290.  Let's remind ourselves that these are estimates and I'm surprised that the figures have not been rounded up or down.

Caucasian Leopard in Armenia. Camera trap video screenshot

I was reading an article in The Times newspaper today about the Caucasian leopard.  It is written by Simon Barnes. He went to Armenia to investigate the state of play of this elusive large wild cat subspecies in Armenia, which is one of the countries within its distribution.  The other countries and areas, as I understand it are: Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Iran and the Middle East.

Of those countries, this subspecies of leopard is most populous in Iran (550-850).

In Armenia the numbers are much lower.  John Barnes states that Armenia is in Europe although it is not a member of the European Union.  On that basis, we can state that we have a leopard living in Europe which sounds a bit odd.

Armenia is a tough, hard place. Apparently it is quite a barren, rugged yet very beautiful place (the video supports that). Quite unlike the rainforests or the Serengeti.  But the leopard is well known to be highly adaptable and has an enormous distribution from Africa in the east all the way to the Far East of Russia; quite extraordinary.  As I remember, it has the largest distribution of any wild cat species. A testament to its adaptability despite being the fourth-largest wild cat.

Armenia is a hard place for the leopard to make a living.  In summer, in daytime the temperature is between 30 and 40°C but it drops to minus 30 in the winter.

The Caucasian leopard is described by John Barnes as the Euro-leopard and the flagship wildlife species in Europe.  I agree.

The population size of the Caucasian leopard in Armenia is so low that it is difficult to tell whether it exists or not in that country.  You almost have to take it on trust.  The Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) in Armenia manage the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge in which the Caucasian leopard lives as part of its range in that country, as I understand it.

They set up camera traps (motion activated cameras usually strapped to trees or rocks along important trails where the leopard is likely to pass). You can see the results of that effort in the video above.

John Barnes reports that one of this organisation's camera trap videos shows a 3 legged leopard.  He presumably means a leopard that has 4 legs but has lost the use of one of his legs.  The video above does not show a 3 legged leopard.

John Barnes states that there aren't much more than a dozen leopards in all Armenia. They ramble over massive areas. Armenia appears to be a good place for the leopard because they need a lot of space and to be left alone. They travel widely and visit most parts of their ranges regularly.  In north-eastern Namibia male leopards' home ranges covered areas of 210-1164 km².  Awesome.  You can see how living in a cage can cause difficulties for this fabulous wild cat species.

Escaped Melanistic F1 Savannah in Scotland?

There might be an escaped F1 melanistic Savannah cat roaming around Scotland, near St. Andrews. I'll tell you why it is a possibility.

The local press is talking about a black "big cat" on the loose (see Fife Today). The word "big cat" is used loosely to! Because a father and son were out for a walk near St. Andrews when from a distance of 35 feet (fairly close so the sighting was good) they saw "a big black cat". It was the size of a small Labrador they added.

There is a difference between a "big black cat" and a "black big cat"! Big cats are usually one of the top four biggest wildcats: jaguar, leopard, lion and tiger.

A genuine black big cat is likely to be a melanistic leopard or jaguar (euphemistically called black panthers). These are large animals considerably larger than a normal or large labrador.

Labradors vary in size but at the shoulder a small Labrador might be about 21 inches tall. The world's tallest domestic cat was at one time Magic, an F1 Savannah cat that was 17.1 inches at the shoulder. The male serval, the father of an F1 Savannah cat is considerably bigger but smaller than the leopard or jaguar.

There is at least one Savannah cat breeder in Scotland: Wild Cat Breeder. They don't say where they are on their website. However, servals and Savannah cats are able to escape. Melanism can occur at anytime. It is a genetic mutation that affects the coat and nothing else.

We are not talking about big cats in the conventional sense. Newspapers like to talk things up. But the observations of a large black cat roaming around St. Andrews, if the observations are faithful, might be sightings of a melanistic F1 Savannah cat or perhaps a serval as both these cats are in Scotland, albeit in captivity. They are the correct size based on the best sighting referred to above.

See also Big Cats in the UK.

New Species of Leopard?

March 28th 2012: Apparently a leopard with a distinctly different appearance has been spotted in the well known Sunderbans National Park that is situated in West Bengal, India. The Sunderbans (also spelled, "Sundarbans") is well known as one of the better Bengal tiger reserves.

The key question is whether the cat that was seen was in fact a mutated version of an existing species rather than a new species. It would be surprising if a new species of leopard was discovered at this stage. Classic examples of wild cats that are mutations of existing species and not therefore a new species are white tigers and black leopards. Other black wildcats such as the serval are simply melanistic cats with almost black coats and ghost patterns.

The number of wild cat species is settled (we think) at 36. This is a slimmed down number from 100 years ago when, based on appearance, there was a tendency to assess wild cats as different species when they were not, at least by modern scientific standards.

We will await further news with interest. Let's hope that the cat is safe as there are a lot of people in the Sunderbans and you do get human/wildcat conflicts that almost invariable result in the cat ultimately being killed.

Update: it is melanistic - unsurprisingly. And apparently smaller than a leopard. There is talk of it being a melanistic leopard cat. Leopard cats (Asian leopard cats) are small cats the size of a domestic cat so this story is scrambled. Probably just press hype. I think the story originated in the Times of India.

See: leopard subspecies.

Difference Between Leopard and Cheetah

In order to fully compare the difference between the leopard and cheetah I think we need to look at the following: size and weight, appearance, prey, habitat, range and status in the wild. For the time being I have left out socialisation and reproduction and development.

Size and Weight

This part is easy. The leopard and the cheetah are the fifth and sixth largest wildcats on the planet respectively. The leopard is slightly heavier than the cheetah. The leopard weighs between 17 and 70 kgs while the cheetah weighs between 21 and 65 kgs. There is not much difference. They are similar is size. They are the "same general size". The major difference is that the cheetah is about 7.6 cms taller. The leopard has a greater weight and size difference across its range than the cheetah because the distribution of the leopard is so extensive.

Appearance

There is, however, a big difference between the leopard and cheetah in appearance. The cheetah does not have the heavy, stocky, muscular body and limbs of other large wildcats. It is a slim and slender wildcat with a very supple spine and a deep chest. The cheetah is a sprinter, a greyhound-like large wildcat. The leopard is more a decathlete, more an all rounder.

The whiskers of the cheetah are short and fine compared to the leopard's cheek whiskers. Whiskers play less of a role in catching prey for the cheetah.

The cheetah "has small canines because it runs so fast". It kills by strangulation and its bite force is less than that of the leopard. The neck bite that severs the spinal cord requires greater force. The leopard employs this method of killing smaller prey and the throat bite for larger prey. The cheetah's canines are smaller than those of the leopard.

The leopard has relatively short legs compared to the cheetah. This page shows the difference between the leopard and cheetah spots.

See cheetah description and leopard picture (appearance) and leopard description for more.

Prey

Leopard prey is extremely wide in its range. It will kill whatever it can catch. Its diet mainly consists of small to medium-sized animals (5-45 kgs). The cheetah mostly feeds on medium sized ungulates (hooved animals) in the 20-50 kg range but most are under 40 kgs.

The cheetah chases prey and runs it down through sheer speed. The leopard's final charge is short, in contrast stalking to within 4 meters in northeastern Namibia.We know that the cheetah can run at a maximum of about 65-70 mph for short bursts while the leopard probably has a top speed of about 45-50. See cheetah speed.

Distribution

The leopard has the widest distribution of all the wildcats from Africa through to eastern Asia while the cheetah is essentially found in Africa with a possible small population in Iran. See leopard habit/range and cheetah geographic range.

Habitat

Due to the very wide distribution of the leopard it is found in wide range of habitats. They can live in any type of habitat except true desert. The cheetah habitat is classically the flat grassy plains of Namibia. It likes arid semi-open grassland, savanna, semi-desert and even even mountain regions.

Status

The IUCN Red List classifies the leopard as Near Threatened while the cheetah is classified as Vulnerable. The range of classifications is as follows:

You can see that the cheetah is in a more precarious situation regarding its survival than the leopard. See a page on the IUCN Red for all wild cats.

Source: Wild Cats of the World ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77999-7 and myself.

Do leopards live in the tropical rainforest?

ANSWER: Yes, but they live in many other sorts of habitat as well. The leopard has the widest geographic distribution of all the wildcats. As a consequence this species of wildcat will be adapted to living in different habitats. It prefers forest cover and is found in all forest types including woodlands, scrub jungles and plantations. It is also lives at 5,000 meters above sea level in mountainous and rocky terrain. The Amur leopard lives in freezing temperatures. The leopard is a generalist in terms of prey type and habitat selection. Tropical rainforest has high rainfall but the leopard can also live in areas of very low rainfall and drink once in ten days (Kalahari desert). Leopards are exceptional tree climbers.

Are leopards and panthers the same?

ANSWER: Yes. These days "panther" is a generic term that usually refers to "black panthers", melanistic large wildcats such as the leopard and jaguar. In the 1800s scientists had thought that there was a species of wildcat that they called the panther and which was different to the leopard. The difference was found to be due to the wide variation in the appearance of the leopard as it grows up. Young leopards look different to adult leopards. It was believed that panthers occupied Africa and leopards lived in India. They were the same cat in fact. The name of the leopard is based on an early belief that this wildcat species was a cross between the lion and the panther: leo + pard.

Can leopards be black?

Yes, leopards can be black. Many wild cat species can also be black or what is called "melanistic" - see melanism for an article on this. Melanistic leopards will have faint markings. They are not jet black. They can be referred to as "black panthers". Black leopards are rare in Africa but "not uncommon" in southern India. They are common in Java and Malaysia, where about 50% of the leopards are black.

In Africa there are black leopards in the Aberdare Mountains of Kenya (just north of Nairobi, Aberdare National Park). This is the place where you will also see many black servals. You will also see black leopards in the Ethiopian highlands the Congo, South Africa and the Ruwenzoris.

How far can leopards jump?

ANSWER: "Considerable distances" -  At least 6.6 meters or 22 and more feet. This is the distance a leopard jumped across a ravine, which was observed by the author P. Turnbull-Kemp in his book The Leopard (1967). However, it likely that there are many examples of greater distances. The leopard is the epitome of the grace and athleticism of the cat. It is a strong and powerful cat and a very skilled climber. It is by far the most skilled at tree climbing of the four big cats (tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard). Only the few best climbers can race down trees headfirst and the leopard is one of these cats. They are also good swimmers. The quote is from Wild Cats of the World ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77999-7.

Do leopards eat zebras?

ANSWER: Yes, leopards eat zebras. They are capable of killing animals four or more times their own weight. Zebras weigh 225-420 kg. Leopards weigh up to about 70 kg. However, the leopard has a very wide range of prey and the zebra is not high up in its preferences or availability. Preferred prey is different species of gazelle and antelope including Thomson's gazelle and the impala.

What are the leopard's enemies?

ANSWER: the tiger, lion, human and dogs are probably the main enemies of the leopard. There is a strange relationship between the dog and the leopard. The leopard attacks, kills and eats the domestic dog. It is in danger itself to an attack by a pack of wild dogs, which are capable of killing the much larger tiger. The leopard is frightened of the tiger. Tigers kill leopards as do lions. The human poses the most danger to the leopard. Where the leopard lives near to human settlements it hunts at night to avoid them. Hyenas are also capable of killing leopards but the match is fairly even. All these animals will steal the leopard's prey. In many areas of the leopard's range it coexists with these species.

Beautiful Leopard Photograph

This is the best camera trap photograph of a wildcat that I have seen. It is of a leopard in its habitat. The leopard is looking down a track he probably uses all the time. That is why the camera was set up at this point. I have improved the image quality a bit. This is allowed under the license. I hope the authors of the image, the Smithsonian Institute, approve of my treatment. It is quite subtle. It makes it a truly beautiful image, I feel. The picture was taken in China.

Leopard (Panthera pardus) in China - Photo by Smithsonian Wild - original image.

The creative commons license does not permit commercial use. As I have advertising on this page, I have donated $50 to the Smithsonian Institute (online donations), in the hope that this gets over this obstacle.

Leopard Camera Trap Photo

I am having a bit of fun with this interesting leopard, camera trap, photo. These are cameras that are fired off when the animal passes in front of it. The shutter works on a motion sensing device in the camera.

It means you get uncomposed images. I guess that is obvious. Hence this one:

The picture is by the Smithsonian Institution. You can see their photostream on Flickr. I actually prefer poorly composed and slightly blurred camera trap photos of wildcats to the captive cat pictures that are beautiful. They are more real for me.

Associated page: leopard description - a beautiful leopard cub.