Wildlife: Mammals -
Leopard 1/3
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Panthera Pardus , Leopard, Luiperd, Leopard.
 Description
The most wide-spread and most stealthy of the great cats in the modern day
world. The leopard is stockier in build than the cheetah and serval, which are
the only other spotted cats of comparable size in the Kruger National Park.
Their ground colour is pale buff to golden yellow with black spots in the shape
of forming rosettes on the flanks, hips and shoulders. It is a stunning
beautiful animal to behold. There are usually two stripes across the lower neck.
Genetic variants include the black, often called panther, and golden leopards.
The tail is long and spotted for a about half the tail's length. The tip is
coloured black with white underneath. In the Kruger National Park the leopard
will reach a length of up to 236 centimetres, tail measuring up to 60
centimetres, with a weight up to 72 kilograms. Females can reach lengths up to
188 centimetres and reach a weight up to 35 kilograms. The largest specimen ever
measured had a length of 292 centimetres and weighed a considerable 90 kilograms.
Habitat
The success of the leopard is partially due to its ability to
adapt to many different kinds of environments. They however have
a profound love for rocky country or forests. They need good
cover for shelter and hunting. They are not dependent on water
but cannot survive in true desert.
Diet
Another part in the success of the leopard is its wide diet. The
leopard will prey on mice to large antelope, on fruit, baby
giraffe, mice, dassies, birds, reptiles, fish and it will make
no problem out of scavenging. Leopard killing humans have been
recorded. Only some years ago a Kruger National Park ranger was
killed at night by a leopard dropping from a tree. At young age
the leopard will hunt smaller prey, at adulthood it will take on
larger prey. In the Kruger National Park during winter smaller
prey is preferred. In the Kruger National Park impala is the
preferred prey with 28% of the diet, warthog forms 15%, duiker
15%, small carnivores 11% and primates 10%. Leopard often hunts
on baboons.
Life history
The gestation period lasts up to 100 days. In the Kruger
National Park usually 2 cubs are born in a litter. The mortality
rate is quite high in the Kruger National Park, 50%. Eyes will
open at 6 days of age and weaning lasts up to 12 weeks. Just
like cheetah cubs they become independent at 18 months of age.
They only become sexually mature at 2 to 4 years of age and
females will bring cubs to live every 2.5 years. Spotted hyena
and lions will hunt down leopard cubs to limit the competition
in the area.
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