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Forests
are refuge sites for a number of many wild animals that make our
beautiful environment. They are useful for humans in a number of ways.
Their bright colors, soft fur, highly developed running ability makes
them extremely successful predator. We're talking about leopards.
Leopards covered animal kingdom and chordate phylum. They are placed in
the class Mammalian, order Carnivore, as they are carnivorous and the
cat family. The scientific name of the leopard Panther pads is. They are
the smallest of the four big cats, including lions, tigers and jaguars.
Previously, they were distributed across eastern and southern Asia and
Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but now the population has
decreased significantly due to mass murder, and they are now limited to
areas of sub-Saharan Africa and figures fragmented in India, Pakistan,
Malaysia, Indochina and China. ICON has kept leopards classified as
near-threatened species as they are about to be extinguished.
Leopards
have short legs, long body and large skull compared to other members of
the cat family. It looks like the jaguar, but is smaller and a little
lighter in construction. The body fur is marked with rosettes like the
Jaguar, but the edges are slightly smaller and more closely packed and
lacks the central jaguars have places. Jaguars and leopards are both
melanin and is often referred to as black panthers. Leopards are very
popular for its opportunistic hunting behavior they have the ability to
adapt to a wide variety of habitats and can operate at a very fast speed
that can at 58 miles per hour and can climb trees quickly, even when
you carry a heavy frame. They are also notorious thieves can steal the
loot in a minute. It can easily catch and eat an animal that hunts. It
is available from rainforest to desert terrapins.
Taxonomy and evolution
In
ancient times it was believed that the leopard is a hybrid of a lion
and the leopard. The generic name Panther pads is from a Greek word
meaning spotted coat. Like all other members of the genus Panther Elide
is also a matter of debate, and the exact relations between the four
species, including the snow leopard and clouded leopard is still a
mystery. It is believed that the developed members of the cat family
there are about 11 million years. The last ancestor of the lion, tiger,
jaguar, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard made wits existence
there are about 6.37 million years on planet Earth. A study by Yu and
Zhang on mitochondrial DNA in 2005 shows that the leopard is closely
related to the snow leopard. Johnson et al., Also supports this notion
as they conducted a study in 2006 is believed that the leopard is native
to Asia and later in Africa. About 27 subspecies of leopard have been
proposed during the nth century. But later only nine recognized
subspecies.
physical Properties
Leopard is an agile
and stealthy predator. Although it is the smallest among the other
members of the genus Panther, but it has a massive skull with muscles
strong and powerful jaw. The body is relatively long legs and short. The
head and the body length is about 125 cm and 165 cm. tail length is
approximately 110-160 cm. the height at the shoulder is about 45-80 cm.
muscles attached to the scapula is extremely strong and is responsible
for giving the opportunity to the leopard to climb trees. The size of
adult leopards vary between family members. It has been reported that
30% of males are larger in size than in women. Mean body weights of male
is about 30 to 91 kg, while that of the female is 3 to 60 kg. Men in
the Kruger National Park, South America is reported to weigh 91 kg,
while those found in the coastal mountains of South Africa is small and
weighs only 30 kg. This variation in weight may be due to differences in
housing. Leopards in the Middle East is also smaller.
Leopards
may sometimes be confused with other members of the cat as cheetah and
jaguar. The three are distinguished by the patterns of spots. The
cheetah has simple, small and dense patches while jaguars have small
spots rosettes. Leopards have smaller and rounder in comparison with
that of jaguars arcs. Leopards are bigger and stronger than the cheetah,
but they are smaller in size compared to jaguars and easily integrated.
Leopards also shows large variations between coat color and pattern of
rosettes. Leopards in East Africa have circular rosettes, while in South
Africa have shaped arcs square. The color of the dress is cream-colored
desert people, and for the colder climate has shades of gray. The
species found in the rainforests have more gold fur. The fur on the
belly is generally lighter in color and stains or arc often seen on the
face and legs.
Color variation
Mountainous areas and
rain forests are home to a mechanistic form of leopards. The color of
the dress is black and is inherited by the offspring and is mainly
caused by the recessive gene locus. These forms are known as black
panthers. The mechanistic leopards are common to the Malay peninsula and
according to a 2007 report, all leopards in the national park Tasman
Near were melanoma. The advantage of such a mechanistic can help
protect, but the exact reason is not clear. It is also believed that
meanies helps stimulate the immune system in a known manner. In Africa,
black leopards are less frequent and their black color seems to have
played no role in their protection while black leopards are common in
the Ethiopian highlands. Pseudo-meanies or abounds also noted that
leopards. Pseudo-mechanistic leopard has the normal background color,
but the spots are more dense and fuse to match the golden brown. The
face and the parts are as common as in the normal.
Behavior and biology
Leopards
are known to be experts at climbing trees and are often seen resting on
tree branches. They are often labeled rising rapidly on trees with prey
in its grip, and is also seen enjoying his prey in the branches. They
are also swimming champions, but not so large in comparison with other
members of the cat family. They can run at speeds of about 58 miles per
hour and have the ability to logo of 6 meters and a capacity of
horizontal jump 3 meters vertically. They perform a number of activities
such as roaring, snarling, growling, meowing and sawing sounds.
Leopards are nocturnal easily studied in open savannas. The rain forest
leopards liver West Africa are diurnal and crepuscular. Leopards living
in the forests are known to have a specialization in prey selection and
patterns of seasonal activity.
regime
Leopards are
opportunistic hunters and dynamic seen hunting in open savannas between
sunrise and sunset enjoying the bushes and cloudy sky. The leopard
stalks its prey silently very close, then grabbed his throat and neck.
They are often seen wearing his prey on the trees to enjoy in a relaxed
atmosphere. They can take the change about three times heavier than
their body weight quickly on a tree branch. Leopards are the only big
cats can pass known to the branch of the tree. Demand for regime
leopards and diversity of prey is very complex compared with other
species of the genus Panther. Leopards are known to prey on smaller
animals such as dung beetles to large ungulates, including animals,
monkeys and even they prefer to feed on rodents, amphibians, fish, birds
and reptiles. In Africa, chit, black and silver antelope are the
favorite food of the leopards.
Reproduction and life cycle
Mating
Leopards cycle continues throughout the year or seasonally during
January and February, depending on the region. The female stays in the
receptive state for about 7 days and the sexual cycle lasts about 46
days. The gestation period is 90 to 105 days. The young are born in
groups of 2-4 and only one or two survive after the first rate year
mortality is 40-50%. The young are born in caves, burrows or crevices.
Kittens eyes are closed when they are born and eyes take 4-9 days to
open. The fur of the young are stronger and thicker than that of adults.
The color of the fur is lighter with a smaller number of points. When
the cubs are three months old, they start after her mother during the
hunting act. At one year of age, they are completely independent and are
able to feed and defend themselves, but they tend to stay with their
mother for about 18-24 months. Life leopards noted about 21 years in
captivity. Beach home of leopards is about 30-78000000 covering 15-16
females. Leopards are solitary outside of mating and hunting, they are
also known to engage in aggressive encounters. Leopards are known to
survive the temperature range of 25 ° C.
ecological importance
Leopards
have been observed to compete for food and shelter with other predators
such as lions, tigers, hyenas and wild dogs in Africa and Asia. The
predator can also cause damage to small or young they can often kill the
cubs. Even a tiger or a lion can kill a leopard. Leopards have adapted
some features to stay away from these great enemy and they often avoid
places frequented by these predators. They often climb trees to protect
themselves, but the lions are often successful snatch the prey taken by
leopards in the trees.
hybrid
The cross between
leopards and other members of Panther resulted in the production of
hybrids. A cross was made between a male leopard and a female lioness
resulted in the production of offspring of what we call a Lepton.
Leptons produced in captivity and survive in the park Hashing Goshen in
Misinform, Japan in the late U.S.S.R. a cross between a Jaguar and a
male leopard result of women in the production of jaguar and the results
of the cross reversed in the leopards production. A cross between a
puma and leopard known pumped.
Relationship with humans
Leopards
are the source of strength and has been used by man since time
immemorial in the art, mythology and culture. Leopards as pets has been
used by some of the kings of antiquity. Many national parks and reserves
have been established worldwide that offers not only protection of
these species, but is also a good source of foreign exchange earnings.
Leopards usually avoid killing people, but habitat loss and insufficient
forces prey to attack people. |
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