How many species of leopard are there?
A page setting out the six species of leopard. For a long time there was confusion over the name of the leopard. I’ll write about that some other time but the Latin, scientific name is made up of the now obsolete names of this wild cat species: Pathera pardus (an amalgamation of “panther” and “pard”).
Leopard. Photo: SameeraMJ
The chart below shows how many species of leopard there are in the cat family today. The first in the list is the cat which we refer to as the leopard or common leopard.
| Leopard Species | Scientific Name |
| Leopard | Panthera pardus |
| American Leopard (Jaguar) (South and Central America) | panthera onca |
| Snow Leopard (or Ounce) (Central Asia) | Uncia uncia |
| Hunting Leopard (now Cheetah) (Africa and Asia) | Acinonyx jubatus |
| Clouded Leopard (Asia) | Neofelis nebulosa |
| Sunda Clouded Leopard (Sumatra and Borneo) | Neofelis diardi |
You can read about various aspects these wild cat species on PoC, in detail. Please use the search facility below:
The source of the information on this page is: Leopard by Desmond Morris published by Reaktion Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78023-279-9
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How can there be four (unlucky) genera, Michael?
If you mean that the leopard – all the species of leopard – are under threat in one way or another, it is because the human wants it like that. You know why the wild cats are under threat. I hope you are okay.