Leopards

Last year at school we had to do a project on an animal at the zoo and because my favorite animals are big cats, eagles and bears i chose to do my study on the Leopard. And this is my finished study..........

The Leopard!

The leopard’s scientific name is Panthera Pardus. It belongs to the cat family and they are near threatened. The population is between 700,000 and 500,000. The leopards life span is approximately 10 to 20 years in the wild. Its closest living relative is the Jaguar.

DIET
Leopards like a large variety of prey things such as; Thompson’s gazelle, monkeys, snakes, birds, jackals, rats, rabbits, beetles, mice, antelope, etc. They prefer warm blooded species rather than cold blooded.
Do leopards have predators? Well most people would expect they don’t but in fact they do.
Lions prey on young leopards.

HABITAT
Leopards love to live in dense bush areas in rocky surroundings. The leopard has the second largest distribution of any cat.
Lives mainly in Africa and southern Asia.
Their location on the zoo’s map is M3 next to the lions.

REPRODUCTION
Female leopards reach sexual maturity around 33 months. She will only give birth to cubs once every 2 years, 1 to 3 cubs may be born.
Cubs open their eyes after 10 days. They start hunting from the age of 5 months, and become independent after 13 - 18 months.

CHARACTERISTICS
The leopard has many features some are; muscular body, powerful hind legs, broad face, long tail, sharp claws and unique spotted coat. The leopard’s length is 90cm to 1.9m its tail is 60cm to 1.1m (24 to 43in) the shoulder height is 46 to 9cm (18 to 31.5in) the leopard weight is 37 to 90 kg.

COMMUNICATION
The leopard communicates by grunting, growling, hissing and meowing.

FACTS
Did you know many other big cats have leopard in their name? One example is the black leopard also known as the Black Panther.
Leopards can run up to 40 miles per hour for a small periods of time.
The leopard is an expellant climber.
In captivity leopards can live up to 23 years.
The leopards tail is longer then a tiger's.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Information from the book Big Cat Challenge
As well as
http://www.leopardlearningzone.com/index.php
Photos from Wikipedia
As well as
http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/Leopard-Cubs.html