LEOPARD

Beauty in action

INGWE (Zulu) - The leopard is feline beauty in action. It lives in forest or broken ground, using cover in a solitary and secretive way. It is nocturnally active.

Males defend their territory, marking it with urine, droppings or by scratching tree trunks. Leopards have a wide diet including insects, reptiles, rodents, birds, small and large mammals. Special favourites are baboons and domestic dogs.

The leopard stalks its prey and strikes with a neck or throat bite resulting in suffocation or a severed jugular. Amazing kills of hartebeest and kudu up to 200kg have been recorded. Unfinished remains of a kill are often dragged up into tree branches to protect against scavengers. One such episode involved a young 100kg giraffe being stored up a tree!

DETAIL

(Panthera pardus)

Adult male mass up to 60kg. Shoulder height 60cm. Length about 2m. Totally black leopards have been reported. Leopards have been known to become man-eaters.