Its Leopard

Fossil range: Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene to Recent

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: P. pardus
Binomial name
Panthera pardus
Linnaeus, 1758

The leopard (Panthera pardus) is an Old World mammal of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four big cats of the genus Panthera, which also consists of the tiger, lion and jaguar. Once distributed across southern Eurasia and Africa, from Korea to South Africa and Spain, it has disappeared from much of its former range and now chiefly occurs in subsaharan Africa. There are fragmented populations in Israel, Indochina, Malaysia, and western China. Despite the loss of range and continued population declines, the cat remains a least-concern species;[1] its numbers are greater than that of the other Panthera species, all of which face more acute conservation concerns.

This spotted cat has relatively short legs and a long body, with a massive skull. It most closely resembles the jaguar physically, although it is usually smaller and of slighter build. Its fur is marked with rosettes which lack internal spots, unlike those of the jaguar. Leopards that are melanistic, either completely black or very dark in coloration, are one of the big cats known colloquially as black panthers.

The species' success in the wild owes in part to its opportunistic hunting behaviour and its adaptability to a variety of habitats. The leopard consumes virtually any animal it can catch and ranges from rainforest to desert. Its ecological role resembles that of the similarly-sized cougar in the Americas. Physically, the spotted cat most closely resembles the jaguar, although it is of lighter build. The leopard and jaguar may have shared ancestry, though the leopard might be more closely related to the lion.

National Geographic: Leopard vs. Hyena vs. Lion