What do leopards do

Leopards are very solitary and spend most of their time alone. They each have their own territory, and leave scratches on trees, urine scent marks and poop to warn other leopards to stay away! Males and females will cross territories, but only to mate. These big cats have a varied diet and enjoy different kinds of grub. They eat bugs, fish, antelope, monkeys, rodents, deer…in fact, pretty much any prey that is available!

Leopards are skilled climbers , and like to rest in the branches of trees during the day. Nocturnal animals, leopards are active at night when they venture out in search for food. Silence and stealth are the trademarks of this ultimate predator. Leopards are the smallest of the large cats to include lions, tigers, and jaguars and are the most widespread, with subspecies found in Africa and Asia. They have a body structure similar to jaguars and are covered with flower-shaped spots on their backs called rosettes, with no dot in the center; the jaguar has a dot inside each of its rosettes.

This profusion of spots helps leopards hide from their prey, breaking up their body outline in forests or grasslands. Leopards living in dry grasslands are generally a lighter color than those found in rainforests.

In the thick, dark rainforests of Southeast Asia, leopards that are nearly black can sometimes be found; these cats may look solid black at first glance, but their spotted pattern is visible in certain light. Although a powerful and clever hunter, leopards are not always at the top of the food chain.

In Africa, lions and packs of hyenas or painted dogs can kill leopards; in Asia, a tiger can do the same. Leopards go to great lengths to avoid these predators, hunting at different times and often pursing different prey than their competitors, and resting in trees to keep from being noticed. Leopards easily adapt to a wide variety of habitats , altitudes, and temperatures, from high mountains to deserts to rainforests. All can live without drinking water for as long as 10 days, getting the moisture they need from their food.

All they need is some brush, thick vegetation, caves, or rocky terrain for hiding and hunting. Leopards usually rest during the heat of the day in bushes, rocks, caves, or even up in a tree, depending upon their habitat.

Of the large cats, leopards are the most arboreal; they have long tails to help them to balance on narrow tree branches.

Unlike most cats, leopards are strong swimmers and are one of the few cats that like water, although they are not as aquatic as tigers. They are great athletes, able to run in bursts up to 36 miles an hour 58 kilometers per hour , leap 20 feet 6 meters forward in a single bound, and jump ten feet 3 meters straight up. Leopards have incredible strength and can climb as high as 50 feet 15 meters up a favorite tree while holding a fresh kill in its mouth, even one larger and heavier than themselves!

This way, leopards can return to eat more at a later time. One leopard was spotted dragging a pound kilograms young giraffe into heavy brush to hide it. Leopards are usually nocturnal, resting by day and hunting at night. The leopard is a champion hunter and has a variety of stealth attacks that catch its prey off guard. The cat uses its vision, keen hearing, and whiskers, rather than its sense of smell, while hunting.

The whiskers face forward when the leopard is walking and move back when the cat is sniffing; they stick out sideways when the leopard is resting. The big cat stalks and pounces rather than chases its prey over long distances. It grabs or swats prey, using retractable claws. They will prey on any animal that comes across their path, such as Thomson's gazelles, cheetah cubs, baboons, rodents, monkeys, snakes, large birds, amphibians, fish, antelopes, warthogs and porcupines.

Leopards are ambush predators; they crouch low to sneak up to their prey and pounce before it has a chance to react, according to the Animal Diversity Web , a database maintained by the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan. A leopard will kill its prey with one swift bite to the neck, breaking it. Leopards have a gestation period of approximately three months and typically give birth to a litter of two to three cubs in a den, according to PBS Nature.

Each cub weighs just 17 to 21 ounces to grams at birth, is blind and almost hairless. They depend on their mother for food and do not leave the den until they are 3 months old. At 12 to18 months, the cubs are ready to live on their own and at 2 or 3 years old will create their own offspring. Leopards live 12 to 15 years in the wild and up to 23 years in zoos. Leopard characteristics are recognized in their classification as catlike carnivores suborder Feliformia and as roaring cats genus Panthera.

Panthera pardus delacouri Indochinese leopard Panthera pardus fusca Indian leopard Panthera pardus japonensis North China leopard Panthera pardus kotiya Sri Lankan leopard Panthera pardus melas Javan leopard Panthera pardus nimr Arabian leopard Panthera pardus orientalis Amur leopard Panthera pardus pardus African leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor Caucasian leopard, Central Asian leopard, Persian leopard.

This listing is due to their declining population, which is caused by habitat loss and hunting.