Leopard : Fast and beautiful

Leopard are the fastest felines as they can run up to to 58 km/h. The rosettes (dark spots that  resemble the shape of a rose) on their coats makes them look very beautiful.

The rosette patterns are unique to each leopard. Leopards in East Africa tend to have circular rosettes while the ones in Southern Africa and Asia, have squarish rosettes.

Leopard subspecies include ;

• African leopard
• Indian leopard
• Javan leopard
• Arabian leopard
• Anatolian leopard
• Amur leopard
• Indochinese leopard
• Sri Lankan leopard

As we can tell, these subspecies are named according to the places they are found. Some of the species have gone extinct, vulnerable or threatened. This is due to majorly humans and both habitat lose and habitat fragmentation.

Leopard are adaptable to almost every environment.

They can literally live anywhere in the world

 

Most of our wildlife parks and reserves in Kenya have leopards. The famous ones and known for their leopards include Samburu National Reserve and Maasai Mara National Reserves.

They are also found in the ice continent. There is where you get the amazing snow leopard.

More about the snow leopard in the next post.

They are solitary animals

Leopards are solitary animals. They only come together during mating.

Do you know that black panther is the other name for a melanistic leopard?

I hope the famous black panther movie gave something back to the wildlife. The name really helped their brand, and leopards qualify for some pat at the back.

Melanism do affect leopards do. It makes the rosettes invisible under the black coat.

FYI : Leopard’s coat colour varies based on the climate and habitats they occupy. They vary from pale yellow to yellowish brown or golden. 

Their colour varies depending on climate and habitat

Apart from running very fast, leopards can leap as well as spring a height of  6 meters.

Leopard are nocturnal animals

Read the full article here.