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Plantlife

Wildlife: Mammals - Leopard 2/3

Amphibians | Birds | Mammals | Reptiles | Wildlife

Panthera Pardus , Leopard, Luiperd, Leopard.

Behaviour
Leopard tend to be active at night, they are to be seen during the day in the Kruger National Park at times however. They rest in trees, caves or the thick coverage of bushes. When hunting they stalk the prey on 10 metres and then rush and drop on the prey which is grappled with the might foreclaws when a killing bite to the back of the skull, nape of the neck or to the troath is followed. Parts of large prey will be taken up into trees to form a storage and to keep the prey away from scavengers. A leopard will eat a prey within four days since it does not prefer rotten meat. Animals and bird are often stripped of fur and feathers before eating begins.

Both male and female live solitary and in the Kruger National Park have their own territory of up to 70 square kilometres. Urine is used to mark the territory, as do many of the great cats. Leopards use rasping to communicate over great distances. Urine also serves the female's purpose to make clear she is in a fertile period. A pair will live together for some days after mating but the leopard male will not take part in raising cubs. Cubs are born in thick coverage and take part in hunting with their mother after four months and will make their first kill after five months.

Field Signs
Whenever one discovers carcasses in trees, feathers and fur plucked from kills it is surely that a leopard is in the near vincinity. Faeces consist out of segmented saucages wit tapered ends. The faeces are 20 to 35 millimetres thick. They always have hair and bone fragments in them. Often exposed in prominent places.

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