Photo by Sara Whitby courtesy of www.wtv-zone.com/BigCats
Index
Habitat and Habitat Utilization
General Info and Social System
Social Spacing
Social Relationships
Summary
References
This page was created by John Bunton (for questions or comments email me at jobunton@davidson.edu ),
as a student web site for Biology 323, Animal Behavior, at Davidson College http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/Behavior/index.html
Image courtesy of http://www.catsurvivaltrust.org
Lepoards are found in Africa, southwestern Asia, and China
(the black areas on the map). They are the most adaptable big cat and can
be found in a range
of habitats including:
lowland
forests, mountains, grasslands, brush country, and deserts. Because they are
so stealthy, leopards can live very close to and often hunt in suburban areas.
They mainly prey on medium sized ungulates like dik dik, impala, and gazelles.
When ungulates are not present, they will prey on a variety of small mammals
that include rock hyraxes, primates, goats, and rodents. Because of their small
body size (compared to other big cats), leopards can vary their diet considerably.
Their food distribution is abundant and scattered. The female must have a place
for a den site on her home range. In the Kalahari desert female leopards will
use aardvark burrows as a den site(Bailey 1993). The den site is usually
dense vegetation or small rocky outcroppings. The den
site
is
crucial
for
cub survival
as it
keeps
cubs safe from predators. Leopards will cache their kills in trees to keep
them from scavengers and other competitors like hyenas, jackals, lions, and
tigers.
Photo by Sara Whitby courtesy of www.wtv-zone.com/BigCats
All information is for adult leopards.
· Size length 4.5-5.5 ft., height 18-24”
· Leopards are smaller than lions and tigers, but bigger than hyenas and wild dogs.
· There
is sexual dimorphism. The male leopard is slightly larger and considerably
heavier than the female.
The average male leopard weighs 63.1 kg,
while the
average female weighs 37.2 kg.
· Their fur ranges from light yellow to
orange and is covered with black rosettes. They have white spots on
the back of their ears. These act as signals
for the cubs
to follow. Black panthers are actually leopards with a genetic skin condition
called melanism.
· Leopards are very strong as they will
drag a prey item for 1-2 miles and
then cache it in a tree. They have short, compact powerful jaws.When
hunting they
sneak up and bite prey on the back of the neck. Their front teeth
wedge between
the
prey's
vertebrae
paralyzing it or puncturing the throat suffocating the prey.
· Leopards are solitary animals.
Leopards, males and females, live on large
home ranges. They live on home ranges, because their food source is indefensible
moving prey.
They cannot defend a territory, because they do not have a constant reliable
food source to guard. Males tend to live on larger
home ranges, because their prey is usually larger then the female’s.
Female leopards will live in an exploded pride (Sunquist 2001). A mother
leopard will share pieces of her home range with her daughters. Also, the
daughters will learn the location of the den site they were born in, and
when they are old enough to give birth, they will often do so in the same
den site. The home range for a female may have more dense vegetation than
a male’s, because she must have a den site in order to protect her
cubs from predators that include leopards, lions, tigers, and
packs of wild dogs. Predators of adults include crocodiles and humans. Humans
kill
leopards
for
their skins
and in retaliation to the leopard's killing of livestock.
Photo by Sara Whitby courtesy of www.wtv-zone.com/BigCats
The mating system for leopards is overlap promiscuity.
Females will mate with older males who have an overlapping home range with
hers. Males
take
no part
in raising the young and only meet with the female to mate. The average length
of time an adult male and female are together is 2.1 days. In the time that
the female and male will spend together they will mate, the male will follow
the female around, and sometimes they will share a kill. This mating system
has evolved because the female can raise her cubs without the help of the
male (ie the male’s resources and/or protection). Females have 1-3 cubs,
so only one parent is needed to take care them. The female raises her cubs
at
a den site and will lead the cubs to kills. The cubs will follow their mother
to kills until they are around 10 months of age and after that they will
start making kills on their own. Since leopards are solitary animals, encounters
of adults with members of the same sex are generally brief. Adult leopards
of the same sex that have neighboring or overlapping ranges will generally
avoid each other, but fights due occur especially over kills.
This social system is adaptive for leopards, because leopards are medium sized carnivores that do not have many predators and can hunt efficiently by themselves. Their hunting style allows them to lead solitary lives without dependence on siblings or parents for reproductive success. The major selection pressure that has shaped the leopards' social system is environment. If medium sized ungulates are not present then the leopard will simply vary its diet. The leopard's varied diet is the main contributor to this system. Because the leopards are not dependent on one type of food source, the number of competitors is greatly reduced.
1. Catfolk species account. Leopard (Panthera pardus). June
2002.
http://lynx.uio.no/catfolk/sp-accts.htm
[accessed 2004 February 12]
2. Bailey, T. N. (1993). The African leopard: a study of the ecology and behavior of a solitary felid. New York, Columbia University Press.
3. Bies, LeeAnn. Animal Diversity Web. Panthera pardus. Feb.
2002. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Panthera_pardus.html >
[accessed 2004 February 18]
4. Bothma, J. (1998). "A review of the southern Kalahari Leopard." Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 53(2): 257-266.
5. Cavallo, J. (1993). Astudy of leopard behavior and ecology in the Seronera Valley, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre Scientific Report: 33-43.
6. Fey, V. (1964). "The diet of leopards." African Wildlife(18): 105-109.
7. Freeman, H. (1983). "Behavior in Adult Pairs of Captive Snow Leopards." Zoo-Biology 2(1): 1-22.
8. Kraus, C. (2003). "Spacing behavior and its implications for the mating system of a precocial small mammal: an almost asocial cavy Cavia magna?" Animal Behavior 66(2): 225-38.
9. Kruuk, H. (1967). "Compartive notes on predaton by lion leopard, cheetah and wild dog in the Serengeti area, East Africa." Mammalia(31): 1-27.
10. Lanier, D. (1976). "A Quantitative Study of Copulatory Behaviour of Large Felidae." Behavioral Processes 1(4): 327-333.
11. Leyhausen, P. (1979). Cat behavior: the predatory and social behavior of domestic and wild cats. New York, Garland.
12. Sandell, M. (1992). "Roamers and Stayers: A Model on Male Mating Tactics and Mating Systems." The American Naturalist 139(1): 177-189.
13. Seidensticker, J. (1996). "The Adaptable Leopard." Wildlife Conservation 99: 52-55.
14. Sunquist, F. (2001). "Staying close to home." International Wildlife 31(3): 20-9.
15. Yamada, J. (1989). "Reproductive Parameters of Clouded Leopards." Zoo-Biology 8(3): 223-231.