OPINION – Guwahati, Kamrup Metropolitan, India: As I read the news media daily about cats, I not infrequently read stories about leopards falling into deep wells in India. Fortunately, the animal is often hauled to safety with a lot of … Continue reading →
The truth of the matter is that leopards “become extremely cautious around larger predators such as lions and tigers, and prefer to retreat to cover or the safe haven of a tree rather than face a direct encounter”. That, I … Continue reading →
No, an individual leopard can’t change their spots once they are fully developed. But the background colour varies considerably across the cats huge distribution. And leopard markings are, in fact, dark spots to rosettes which vary in ‘size, shape, thickness … Continue reading →
What kind of domestic cat has leopard spots? The answer must be the Bengal cat as you can see from the montage below: You will not match a leopard’s spots exactly in a domestic cat. As you can see they … Continue reading →
It is hoped that a Roman mosaic from the 4th-century of a leopard attacking an antelope, which was discovered in the grounds of Dewlish House in Dorset in 1974, will stay in the country. It is the sort of historical … Continue reading →
Yes, leopards live in China. If you look at an historical map of the distribution of the leopard you will see that they occupied almost the entirety of China (2002). In fact the leopard probably still has the greatest geographic … Continue reading →
Yes, a leopard can mate with a jaguar. The hybrid cat thus created has four different names: jagulep, jagleop, lepjag and leguar. All pretty unimaginative names but descriptive nonetheless. As usual, I have to call upon my friend Sarah Hartwell … Continue reading →
Yes, leopards eat monkeys but it depends on where the leopard is living. They have an enormous distribution, the largest of all the wild cat species. In “some forested areas leopards take a surprisingly large number of monkeys”1. This should … Continue reading →
People ask why there are no big cats in Australia but they could also ask a much wider question namely, “Why are there no native cats at all in Australia?” The answer must be found in the fact that the … Continue reading →
The answer is no and I’ll explain why. The classification of the species is decided by experts and it is still not fully settled. Early on, up to 200 years ago, scientists got the classifications wrong or a least it … Continue reading →
