The leopard has the widest distribution of the wild cats, and shows great variation in appearance and behavior. In general, the coat color varies from pale yellow to deep gold or tawny, and is patterned with black rosettes. The head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Coat color and patterning are broadly associated with habitat type. Pocock (1932a) found the following trends in coloration for leopards in Africa:
Leopards occur in most of sub-Saharan Africa. They are found in all habitats with annual rainfall above 50 mm (Monod 1965), and can penetrate areas with less than this amount of rainfall along river courses: e.g., leopards are found along the Orange River in the Richtersveld National Park (South Africa), which lies at the southernmost extension of the Namib Desert (Stuart and Stuart 1989). Out of all the African cats, the leopard is the only species which occupies both rainforest and arid desert habitats. Leopards range exceptionally up to 5,700 m, where a carcass was discovered on the rim of Mt Kilimanjaro's Kibo Crater in 1926 (Guggisberg 1975). They are abundant on the highest slopes of the Ruwenzori and Virunga volcanoes, and have been observed to drink thermal water (37°C) in Zaire's Virunga National Park (J. Verschuren in litt. 1993). Longevity:
The leopard is the third largest cat of the Eastern Hemisphere. Only the tiger and lion are larger. Leopards live in Africa as far north as the Sahara, and in Asia from Turkey to Korea and Java. Leopards are very graceful and cunning. They are about 2½ feet tall at the shoulder and about 7½ feet long from nose to tail tip though a large male may measure up to 9 feet long. The male weighs between 100-160 pounds. The female will weigh about 75 pounds. In the wild their life span is 10-15 years and in captivity it is generally 12-15 years, but up to 20 The coat of most leopards is tan with many black spots. Their tail has dark rings around it. The black leopard (also called a panther) is so dark that his spots are hardly visible. They are merely a color variation, not a subspecies. They are rare in the wild due to the fact that the mother sees the black cub as defective and often ignores it. Hence they have less chance of survival. They are more common in the humid forest habitats of India, Somalia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and has also been encountered in South Africa. The fierce leopard eats animals such as the monkey, antelope, peacocks, snakes, sheep and goats. Leopards are great climbers and spend much of their time in trees. Leopards are also very strong. The carcasses of their prey weighing over 100 pounds have been found in trees where the big cats have carried them to be eaten. The leopards coat is valuable. Many countries have signed treaties to ban the sale or purchase of leopard skins due to the fear of extinction regarding the leopard. For a big cat, the leopard is remarkably persistent in the face of human settlement, especially considering the high human population densities found throughout much of this region. Leopards have recently been trapped within 50 km of Beijing (Tan Bangjie in litt. 1990). They are still found (in low numbers) throughout Java - despite the fact that the island is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
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