Wildlife – Leopard Facts

[adrotate banner="3"]

According to the Shona People, leopards that remain in the hills leading a natural existence are to be disregarded. However sometimes one of these great cats will come into the kraal and sit down, and will remain impervious to any attempts made to dislodge it.

These leopards are really spirits, and a medium must be sought to communicate with them. Their visit may be a warning, or just to observe that all is well with the tribe. Only mediums are able to speak with them. The leopard will proclaim its identity to the medium, state the purpose of its visit and then vanish.

Description

The leopard is Africa’s most efficient hunter with a 40% success rate. Adult male leopards reach 65cm (26 in.) tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 60 Kg (132 lb.). The female are predictably smaller, averaging 60 cm (24 in.) at the shoulder and weighing 55 Kg (121 lb.). The leopard’s most distinctive feature is the black spots on its tan coat, which makes it able to camouflage itself extremely well, hence being known as the elusive cat.

Hunting

Like all cats, leopards are predators and live off flesh. They are capable of taking a wide range of ungulate species from 5 to 70 kg’s (11 – 150 lbs.). They are also not at all averse to taking carrion when available. These cats are opportunistic hunters and will take smaller alternative prey such as baboons, monkeys and hares. Leopards can also obtain all their water requirements from kills, and are therefore not dependent on water. They will however drink if water is available.

Leopards are the quintessential stalking predators, and the term “leopard crawling” is well founded. They prefer to hunt at night, and seek to crawl as close as possible to their chosen prey. They usually get within 5 and 20m (17 – 120 ft.), before their explosive rush and pounce. Their tan and black rosetted coat greatly aids in camouflage. If they miss, they seldom chase, and then no further than 50 metres (165 feet). This is despite the fact that they can reach an estimated top speed of 60 kilometres an hour (± 38 mph). While they may hunt during day light hours, their success rate here is very poor, usually less than 10%. Leopards have also been noted on occasion to drive cheetahs off their kills.

Although they are the second largest of the African predators their kills are often vulnerable and can be taken from them by lion, spotted hyaena, wild dog and even jackal when they are in numbers. They have, however, evolved an excellent way to overcome this problem. The leopard, being the strongest cat weight for weight has the ability to drag a carcass high into trees. The carcasses could be its own weight or more, and the cat claws its way up a vertical tree trunk with the animal in its mouth. In this way the leopard kill is quite protected, and it may return to the tree over the next three to four days to continue feeding off it. Thus the leopard doesn’t have to make a kill as frequently as most other predators. This behaviour of caching prey in trees is not observed when leopards are the dominant predators in the region.

Statistics

Social Behaviour

It is to be noted from the leopards’ mode of hunting, that they are solitary animals. The males only interact with the females long enough to mate and then leave. Both sexes maintain specific territories, and males tend to respect these boundaries, although female home ranges may overlap. Territory marking is done by scratch marks on tree trunks, as well as urine and defecation.

In one rare display of territoriality two adult male leopards were observed walking towards each other. One stopped short, and the other continued to it. When they met, both turned in the same direction and walked parallel to each other for a kilometre or so as though an invisible barrier separated the two. They then broke off in different directions.

Breeding

Leopards are capable of breeding at two years old. In the wild, male leopards periodically seek out females to observe if they are in oestrus. Signals to this effect are mostly olfactory, coupled by female behaviourisms such as nuzzling or, more directly, presenting herself in a copulatory crouch.

One to three cubs are born after about three months gestation. They are concealed in dense thickets, hollow trees, abandoned termite mounds or caves. They don’t emerge from this den for six weeks, after which they make short excursions with their mother and begin eating meat. They may be fully weaned by three months, although they won’t be able to fend for themselves for at least a year.

During this time the female spends roughly half her time with the cubs and half away, hunting and feeding. Thus from the beginning the cubs become adapted to long periods of fasting interrupted by periods of gorging themselves. As the cubs venture out, they begin long play sessions that will eventually prepare them for hunting successfully.

They start by stalking and pouncing on their mother’s twitching tail tip, graduating to leaves, twigs and insects. By five weeks they will be able to catch the occasional frog or small lethargic rodent. By the end of their first year, they are already making small kills for themselves, but continue to hunt with their mother, until they are two years old.

Full size is reached within three or four years. At this time their mother will become aggressive toward them at her next oestrus cycle. She now drives them off, which may save them from serious injury or death when her adult mate returns. He would not tolerate the presence of well grown cubs.

Conservation

Leopards are very successful as a species, and have adapted well to their ever diminishing natural habitats. They have even settled quite comfortably in the midst of agricultural communities, feeding off the very vulnerable livestock. Also perhaps because they often remove their prey, stock losses are not attributed to them. Nevertheless The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) list this species as vulnerable.

Their current status means that they are likely to move into the Endangered Category in the near future if the causal factors inhibiting population growth continue operating. It is very difficult to estimate or calculate their numbers in any given area. Leopards are often very nomadic and will move between different reserves and farms quite regularly. The Kruger National Park and surrounding private reserves probably have an estimated 1000 individuals.

On a positive note, an ongoing study (October 2004) is researching what seems to be a large and heathy population of wild leopard in the mountainous Lydenberg area. These animals are hunting the resident baboon population for the most part. Their success is thus far attributed to the complete lack of human contact or interference.

_{Source: Wildlife Campus}