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Order : CARNIVORA
Family : Felidae
Species : Panthera pardus
Head-body length : up to 1.3 metres
Tail length : up to 1.0 metre
Weight : up to 65 kg
The Leopard is the most
widespread of all the big cats, ranging from southern and central Africa
through parts of the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast
Asia.
It is highly adaptable and can survive in a variety of habitats. In
Southeast Asia, however, it is largely a lowland forest animal, occurring in
evergreen rainforest and dry, deciduous forest.
It is a solitary, opportunistic feeder which prowls the forest floor seeking
out prey items such as wild pig,
muntjac and other ungulates, and
macaques. It is an ambush predator,
and strong climber. In Southeast Asia's forested habitats it appears to be
largely diurnal, being active even at mid-day when other large animals are
inactive.
Leopards have a lithe, muscular body with
a long, slender tail. The skull is relatively large, with powerful crushing
jaws. Males are larger than females.
There are two colour forms. There is the familiar spotted form, which is
pale yellow to golden brown and is adorned with numerous small rosettes on
the back and flanks, and dark spots on the legs and chest. The second form
is melanistic i.e. with intense black pigmentation which almost totally
obscures the rosettes (though under strong light the rosettes may still be
apparent).
In southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia nearly all individuals are
melanistic, and are sometimes called 'black panthers' (though this term,
which can also apply to black jaguars in South America, is considered
somewhat old-fashioned). Elsewhere in Southeast Asia the spotted form
is more common - and in such areas both spotted and black forms may be born
in the same litter.
The presence of black forms in deep forest may be an evolutionary adaptation to
improve camouflage.
The distribution of the Leopard is increasingly fragmented due to forest
destruction. The species has not adapted to oil palm plantations - perhaps because
there is a low diversity of ungulate prey, or possibly because there are few
places for this ambush predator to hide.
IUCN recognize 9 subspecies of leopard, of which three occur in Southeast Asia
: the Indian Leopard (P. p. fusca) occurs in parts of western Myanmar, the critically endangered Javan Leopard (P. p. melas)
occurs only on the island of Java, and the
widespread Indochinese Leopard (P. p. delacouri).
The Indochinese Leopard occurs in parts of southern China, Myanmar, Thailand,
Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam) and Peninsular Malaysia. In Singapore
the species is clearly extinct on the main island, and is probably also
extinct on outlying, forested islands.
Figs 1 and 2 : Trail camera images of two
different adult,
melanistic leopards from lowland, primary forest in Peninsular Malaysia. This
is the subspecies known as the Indochinese Leopard (P. p. delacouri).
Fig 3 : Typical spotted form from southern Africa - this is the subspecies
P. p. pardus.
Figs 1 and 2 image use courtesy
MYCAT ©.
References :
Francis, C.M. 2019. A Field Guide to the Mammals of South-east Asia. Second
Edition. Bloomsbury Publishing. 416 pp.
Lekagul, B., McNeely, J., 1977. Mammals of Thailand. Association for the
Conservation of Wildlife, Thailand. 758 pp.
Stein, A.B., Gerngross, P., Al Hikmani, H., Balme, G., Bertola, L., Drouilly,
M., Farhadinia, M.S., Feng, L., Ghoddousi, A., Henschel, P., Jhala, Y.,
Khorozyan, I., Kittle, A., Laguardia, A., Luo, S.-J., Mann, G., Miquelle,
D., Moheb, Z., Raza, H., Rostro-García, S., Shivakumar, S., Song, D. &
Wibisono, H. 2024. Panthera pardus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
2024: e.T15954A254576956.
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